To facilitate transitions towards a healthy future, (collective) action is necessary to disrupt established patterns and power structures. There is a strong need for changemakers who, in collaboration with other societal partners, can initiate, create, and evaluate responsible, relevant, and innovative transitions.

The interdisciplinary course "Change Making: Co-creating a Healthy Future" has a mission to enable bachelor students from all faculties of the UvA, together with societal partners to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to be meaningful changemakers. Students and societal partners collaborate intensively as co-learners on healthy future issues. By bringing together experts with different backgrounds and areas of expertise, co-learning can contribute to a deeper understanding of issues and the identification of new approaches for interventions. The transition cycle serves as the guiding method in unravelling and transforming complex health-related problems.

At the end of this course, changemakers will have carried out concrete projects that have a positive impact on societal transitions in the field of health and health care as well as personal growth.

Coordinator

Dr. Tjerk Jan Schuitmaker-Warnaar

What is Change Making?

Change Making goes beyond traditional education and uses the Transition Cycle. It has the following unique features:

• Co-learning: students and professionals from the field genuinely  work together, doing so from various disciplinary perspectives and areas  of expertise.
• Joint vision formation: Change Makers create a shared vision for  the future. They do this by employing imagination and innovative  thinking and breaking through prevailing systems.
• Interventions in the real world: Change Makers go beyond theory by jointly carrying out small-scale, real interventions.
• Emphasis on reflection and personal growth: Change Makers learn to know their own motivations and capabilities.