Oh, The Places We've Gone and are Going: Coaction Collective Turns Five

Five years ago, five of us sat with an idea and not much else. No map, no client roster, no proof it would work. Just a shared belief that the way most systems talk to families is broken, and a stubborn hope that we could build something better if we did it together.

Coco's first Zoom meeting on September 2, 2021. My, how we've changed...

We didn't know where we'd end up. We just knew how we wanted to travel.

Appreciation came first, because it had to. So much of this field starts from what families lack, what they're not doing, what needs fixing. We built Coaction Collective the opposite way. We walked into schools, and conference rooms, and district offices looking for what was already working, already strong, already there. That choice shaped everything else. It's easier to build with people than to build for them, but only if you actually believe they have something to build with in the first place. We did. We still do.

Collaboration is what kept us honest. Five founders means five different instincts about how to solve a problem, and that friction never fully goes away, nor should it. We've learned to trust each other's judgment even when it isn't our own first instinct. We've learned that the best work rarely comes from the smartest person in the room deciding alone. It comes from people who respect each other enough to argue, listen, and land somewhere better than where any one of us started.

Coco's first outing with all 5 members. We came together to attend the National Family Engagement Summit in 2022.

And liberation, the word we probably explain the least and mean the most. Every family we've worked with is carrying something the system didn't design for. Every school staff member is often doing more with less. Liberation for us has meant building tools and relationships that free people up to do the work they already know how to do, instead of forcing them into someone else's framework. That's harder than it sounds. It's also the only version of this work that felt worth doing.

We're proud of five years. We're also humbled by how much of it we didn't get right on the first try, how many communities taught us something we needed to unlearn, and how much further this work has to go.

That's the real answer to where the map takes you. Not a straight line. Not a finish line. Just more places worth going, with people worth going there for.

Happy 5th anniversary, CoCo. Here's to the next stretch of road.

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