I got new eyes a few weeks ago.

Basically, I had cataract surgery — a total lens replacement in both eyes. And for someone who has not seen things without the aid of corrective eye wear since she was nine, this is nothing short of a miracle.

My newly acquired 20/15 vision has gotten me thinking about the power of looking with new eyes — a concept that feels particularly poignant given the introspection that year-ends and new-years often invite us to do.

Not too long ago at our all-hands retreat, we did our own introspective exercise that had us set down the behaviors that no longer serve us and step into a new space shaped by the past but made more generative by the buoyancy of the future. Each team was invited to draw a timeline spanning from 2021 to 2025, or the period of our most recent strategic plan. On it, they inventoried evolutions in teams and programming, proudest moments, and insights gathered — all mini and major milestones that had a hand in our cumulative impact over the years.

We did this exercise to take stock because often when you transition from one year to the next (much less five years to the next), you don’t pause to stand tall in the moment, you just blaze through as if next is always more important than now.

But standing tall on the broad shoulders that got you to the present is a powerful thing. You can see more clearly what worked, what didn’t, and what makes you hungry for more.

With that reminder, we at Team REDF are excited to enter our new strategic period. In the next five years, we’re working some alchemy: taking the components of our past successes, and recombining them to build thriving ecosystems of ESEs all across the US.

Why ecosystems? Because we know that individually, ESEs — now spanning 42 states and D.C. — are strong. But when they “Red Rover, Red Rover” together within a region, their collective impact makes decisionmakers stop and take notice. Conventional employers widen their eyes to talent on whom they’ve been missing out. Legislators see models that are ripe for repetition. And whole communities feel change underfoot as families get their bounce back.

So in this new year, with this new plan, we are going to raise our gaze from individual impact to systemic change. And we look forward to the coming months, when we can read you in to all the ways we hope to do so, together.

First stop, Los Angeles…