A blog about connecting lived experience with theory and practice to cultivate equitable systemic change in mental health.
Rooted in Abundance
At the Abundance Project, we’re grounded in the belief that abundance is not something external or aspirational. Abundance already exists within our communities. Whether in cultural practice, ecological knowledge, collective resilience, or place-based creativity, there is already more than enough. What’s needed is the redistribution of resources, power, and opportunity, so that this abundance can be realised by all, particularly those who are underserved.
Why a Theory of Change, and Why Now?
To help guide our work towards this vision, we embarked on the process of developing a Theory of Change. This is a structured, yet flexible framework to help us articulate how we believe change happens, what our role in that process is, and how we can be held accountable for the impact we hope to create. While Theories of Change have become standard practice in policy and development spaces, we approached this not as a tick-box exercise, but as an opportunity to deepen alignment across our team and partners, and to clarify the nature of the change we are working towards.
A Framework of Frameworks
To develop a Theory of Change, we drew on several established models to shape our approach. The United Nations Development Group’s principles were particularly helpful in setting the foundation: ensuring our Theory of Change was not only plausible and evidence-based, but also grounded in values of participation, clarity, and transparency. We also found the Nesta Theory of Change model valuable in guiding us through a clear and logical sequencing of inputs, activities, outputs and long-term outcomes. At the same time we recognised in line with the MRC/NIHR’s Complex Intervention Framework, that the work of social change is rarely linear, and that any credible Theory of Change must allow for iteration, adaptation and learning over time.
A Collaborative Process
We began the process with co-creation workshops, engaging not just our core research team but also community partners (Co-Investigators) and stakeholders. This was more than consultation, it was a genuine act of collective meaning-making. Inspired by the Alliance for Water Stewardship’s question-led model, as a team we focused on asking the “right kinds of questions”: What injustices are we responding to? Where and how does abundance already exist? And how do we, as facilitators, avoid reinforcing the very systems of extraction and scarcity we are trying to undo?
Four Pathways to Change
Through this process, four central pathways to change have begun to emerge.
- The first is redistribution of funding, access, and decision-making. This isn’t just about paying people fairly for their involvement in the project, but about shifting who holds influence over decisions and what is valued and supported.
- The second is capacity-building: investing in the skills, confidence, and leadership of those already working at the intersection of culture, ecology, health and community.
- Third is narrative change- the deep and often invisible work of challenging the “scarcity” or deficit logic that underpins so many systems, and replacing it with stories of “abundance”, community, connection and care held within and between different types of communities, particularly those which are underserved and marginalised.
- Fourth, we identified the importance of systems design- building new collaborative structures that can support and sustain abundance in practice and build equitable partnerships, not just in theory.
These pathways are not isolated. They are interdependent and iterative, much like the process of change itself.
More Than a Diagram
Our Theory of Change recognises that we are not operating in a vacuum, but within a complex and evolving system that includes policy, funding, community practice and institutional memory. As such, our Theory of Change is not fixed, it is a working document that will evolve, be revisited and refined as we learn, adapt, grow, and gather evidence through the project.
What we have found most valuable in this process of mapping change, aside from working towards the shared goal of better mental health, is the possibility for connection and conversations along the way. It has encouraged us to surface unspoken assumptions, to be honest about trade-offs and setbacks, as well as how to become more intentional in how we connect our research activities to our wider vision.
Looking Ahead
As we continue to develop the Abundance Project, our Theory of Change will serve as both compass and mirror. It points us in the direction of the equitable, inclusive future we believe is possible- and it keeps us facing the reality of where we are now. In the coming months, we plan to use the Theory of Change as a learning-focused development and monitoring tool when moving into new phases of the project and engaging with different groups of stakeholders. We’ll also be sharing back our process with the community members and partners who have shaped it.
A Quiet Counter-Narrative
In a time when scarcity continues to dominate public discourse, particularly in relation to public health and mental health needs, we hope our Theory of Change can offer a quiet counter-narrative: one that insists abundance is possible, and that with care, imagination and collective action, mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities can be made real.
If you’re working on similar questions, or would like to explore our approach in more depth, we’d love to hear from you.
This post was developed by Dr Elizabeth Morrow, Professor Tushna Vandrevala, Dr Kerry Brown and Dr Richard Boulton, the team leading on the embedded evaluation of the project.