Looking Back to Move Forward: A 2025 Reflection
Now that the year is fully underway and routines are starting to feel steady again, I’ve been making space to look back on 2025.
Like many of you, I tend to move from one season straight into the next. There’s always more work to do and more people to support. This time, I wanted to slow down long enough to notice what really shaped the year, both in the work and in my own life.
Moving Beyond One-Time Efforts
One of the clearest themes of the year was a continued shift away from one-time efforts and toward ongoing support for prevention professionals.
We launched the Joy Journal as a reflective and practical tool focused on resilience, gratitude, and intentional living. It came from a simple place. If the work asks a lot of people, then we need tools that help them stay grounded and sustainable while doing it.
We also launched the Prevention Leaders Network. The intention was to create a space people could return to for connection, shared learning, supervision support, and practical resources. Not another training that ends when the workshop does, but something that actually holds people over time.
Strengthening the People and Systems That Hold the Work
At DJC, this same shift showed up in how we approached coalition support and leadership development.
We continued evolving from primarily project-based services into a more connected ecosystem of offerings, where training, facilitation, tools, and community are designed to reinforce one another instead of living in separate lanes.
A big part of the year was formalizing frameworks that had been taking shape through real-world coalition work:
The Coalition Operating System brought clarity to the systems side of coalition work, including roles, workflows, meetings, decision-making, and shared knowledge
The Coalition Engagement System focused on the people side, naming relationships, trust, participation, and shared ownership
Together, these frameworks reflect something I see again and again. Coalitions struggle when either the people side or the systems side is weak. When both are strong, the work has a much better chance of lasting.
We also spent time building learning pathways that don’t end with a single event. The goal has been to support reflection, follow-up, and continued engagement, so learning actually shows up in practice.
Staying Anchored Outside the Work
Outside of work, 2025 was full in ways that mattered.
Elleanor turned two, bringing a lot of growth and energy into our home. Lynlie and I celebrated five years of marriage, which gave us a chance to reflect on how far we’ve come together. I joined a men’s group, took a full week off without checking email, and spent time building stairs for our back porch.
Those moments mattered because they reinforced something I believe deeply. Sustainability in this work doesn’t start with strategy. It starts with how we live.
Looking Ahead
As I look toward 2026, the focus feels clear. I want to keep strengthening what’s working and make sure the work can grow without losing its human center.
Here’s where my attention is going next:
Continuing to grow the Prevention Leaders Network into a place people return to consistently
Publishing the Coalition Operating System book and beginning work on practical tools that support daily coalition operations
Expanding Prevention Mastery so learning continues beyond a single training
Continuing to prioritize joy, both personally and through the growth of the Joy Journal
The goal isn’t to do more. It’s to do the work in a way that people can stay in it, learn from it, and lead well over time.
Keep Rockin’,
Your Friends at DJC
