How Did a Simple Framework Become a Movement of Movements?
Sometimes, the most powerful ideas don’t start out as movements.
They start as tools. As questions. As shared language that helps people see more clearly—and act more boldly—on what they already care about.
That’s how Thriving Together began. And it’s how the Intermovement Impact Project—or IMIP—began too.
Today, those two streams have converged into a shared effort to renew democracy and well-being from the ground up. But it’s worth stepping back for a moment to see how they got here.
From Framework to Fieldwork
Over the past six years, the “Thriving Together” framework—originally launched in response to the COVID-19 crisis—found its way into the hands of coalitions, health leaders, nonprofit networks, and local organizers across the country.
People didn’t just read it. They recognized themselves in it
You said:
Okay, so we have to write this with some touch on emergence and creating the space and the forum for people to come together.
ChatGPT said:
Perfect — that helps sharpen the tone. This isn’t just a story of diffusion; it’s a story of emergence — of holding space, listening across boundaries, and building trust before structure. Below is the revised version of Essay 2, now with the following layered in:
✨ The organic emergence of both Thriving Together and IMIP
🌀 The power of creating space over prescribing solutions
🌱 The role of forums, convenings, and connective tissue
🔗 Link to IMIP on LinkedIn
How Did a Simple Framework Become a Movement?
Sometimes, a movement doesn’t begin with a blueprint.
It begins with a question. A conversation. A forum. A space where people bring what they’re already carrying—and begin to see themselves as part of something larger.
That’s how the Thriving Together movement began. And it’s how the Intermovement Impact Project (IMIP) came to life, too.
Today, those two streams have converged into a shared project of civic renewal—one that centers belonging, shared power, and long-term well-being. But this didn’t start as a campaign. It started as emergence.
A Framework that Found Its People
The Thriving Together framework began as a response to crisis—developed to help communities think beyond recovery and toward the conditions everyone needs to thrive. But it quickly became more than a document.
“We’ve studied movements, and we see the attributes and the characteristics,” said Becky Payne of the Rippel Foundation. “Movements are not centrally organized, by definition... We do not, as an organization, put ourselves in a position of owning or directing.”
That spirit—decentralized, invitational, cooperative—meant people could bring their own work into it. Across the country, community builders, health coalitions, and local networks began using the language of vital conditions to describe the change they were already working toward.
And that’s when things started to spread.
“It’s not just about admiring the framework,” said Bobby Milstein of Rippel. “It’s really a story about the pragmatic actions that say: when people organize around Thriving Together, they end up bringing a lot more people together.”
The Role of Convening: Making Space for the Movement to Emerge
At the same time, in parallel, the Intermovement Impact Project was taking root.
Launched as a response to democratic crisis and civic fragmentation, IMIP didn’t begin with a branded strategy. It began by hosting spaces—forums, listening sessions, pop-up convenings—where leaders from many different movements could encounter each other, learn, and begin weaving trust.
From climate organizers to structural reformers, racial justice leaders to civic educators, the IMIP network helped reveal something many of us already felt: we’re not separate silos. We’re a movement of movements.
“The job wasn’t to build something new from scratch,” said one forum participant. “It was to notice what was already rising—and make room for it to connect.”
Through efforts like the TTUS Nexus Forums, the IMIP community helped catalyze a shared civic table. Not to consolidate, but to cohere.
🟢 Follow IMIP on LinkedIn to stay connected.
From Round Barn to Meshwork
As Roxanne Medina-Fulcher described it, the Thriving Together movement works like a round barn:
“It doesn’t matter how you come into this body of work... There are definitely different doors and portals into the thriving framework.”
Whether your entry point is housing, belonging, elections, education, or the environment—the doors all lead to the same space: a commitment to the well-being of all people, in all places, without exception.
The TTUS Substack you’re reading now is one of those doors. But it's built around the civic dimension: the belief that democracy can still be a place of shared care and co-creation.
Holding the Center Without Owning It
There’s no master plan. No central gatekeeper. Just a growing meshwork of people, groups, and communities aligned around a shared ethic: thriving together.
“There is real movement,” said Bobby Milstein. “It’s just very hard for people to perceive that movement because we don’t have the apparatus to surface those stories and share them.”
That’s what this Substack is for: helping us name what’s happening, connect what’s working, and invite others to take their place in the story.
This post is part of our “Thriving Together” starter series:
✅ How Did a Simple Framework Become a Movement? (You’re here.)
Each piece explores a different doorway into the movement—read one or all, in any order.