The seeds of Full Frame Initiative were planted in the 1990s, when founder/CEO Katya Fels Smyth partnered with chronically unhoused women left behind and out of most services to create On the Rise, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based community for and by these women. On the Rise remains a nationally and internationally recognized program for its “full frame” approach, which starts with two premises: 1) that everyone wants to be seen and treated as a whole person, not a bundle of problems, and 2) that people’s growth happens in the context of relationships and community.
In 2004, On the Rise began a strategic initiative to rigorously codify the theory, document the impact of the Full Frame Approach, and affirm the need to focus on transforming the systems at the root of so many challenges.
Katya spun the Full Frame Initiative off from On the Rise in 2007. Under the fiscal sponsorship of the Cambridge Community Foundation and through appointments at Harvard and MIT, Katya began building a network of allies to bring attention, legitimacy and resources to the Full Frame Approach. In 2009, FFI became an independent nonprofit.
As FFI expanded networks to take on systemic barriers to the Full Frame Approach, our focus rapidly became wellbeing – defined as the full set of needs and experiences universally required for health, hope, and resilience. (In the years to come FFI would codify its signature Five Domains of Wellbeing framework through learning, practice, and partnership.) Early adopters began to apply wellbeing to social services evaluation, philanthropy and more.
From 2011-2019, FFI worked alongside dedicated partners to bring wellbeing-centered approaches to multiple states and sectors. These partnerships generated impact, but also built allies and seeded a national movement. Among many examples, this included:
Redeveloped the juvenile justice system’s treatment planning with the Five Domains of Wellbeing framework, increasing family involvement and traditional success metrics. In 2015, wellbeing became the center of the statewide child welfare system, from staff training and decision-making to expectations for contracted nonprofits, leading to significant ecosystem change.
Produced the influential “How Do Survivors Define Success?” report through Blue Shield of California funding, which continues to impact domestic violence policy nationwide. A follow-on project, Learning from What Goes Well (link to report?), worked with California community leaders to create systems change by starting with bright spots.
Informed a multi-agency wellbeing action plan that transformed procurements, programming approaches, and public policy. MA became the first state in the country to call for access to wellbeing, not just short-term safety, as an outcome for domestic and sexual violence programs. This was codified in changes to policy and procurement, and led to the pilot of an intensive co-assessment process that didn’t force unsustainable tradeoffs on survivors needing a place to stay.
Partnered with Family Courts to address system fragmentation and disparities through a wellbeing orientation.
FFI was firing on all cylinders, with staff speaking and presenting nationally, work with Missouri and Massachusetts government agencies continuing to expand, and partnerships with communities and organizations around the country bubbling. Seattle and other cities began to learn from the St. Louis County Courts, and our work on co-assessment and procurement began to ripple across the country. FFI caught the attention of national solutions journalism expert David Bornstein, who profiled FFI over two articles in his highly regarded New York Times column, Fixes.
As the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-overdue reckoning on racism laid broken systems bare, FFI’s mission was more relevant than ever.
This unprecedented opportunity to advance a wellbeing agenda led public agency and community leaders to collaborate intensively with FFI in spring 2020 to co-create the Wellbeing Blueprint — a policy roadmap for achieving a fair shot at wellbeing. Hundreds nationwide signed on to this powerful way to make a fair shot at wellbeing “real.” Through practical application, the Blueprint’s six principles evolved into the Wellbeing Design Principles, which continue to inform social change efforts nationwide.
The unique opportunity of pandemic recovery investments also brought in new partnerships, perhaps most significantly a multi-year, city-wide collaboration with the city of New London, CT. Mayor Passero outlines how a fair shot for wellbeing has become a cornerstone of his administration in this op-ed. In 2024, New London was one of the first cities where FFI piloted our approach to mapping community wellbeing assets.
FFI has always been clear: you don’t get to a fair shot at wellbeing without centering community and lived experience. To better align intent and action, in 2022, FFI created space for 16 national community leaders to explore pathways for healing systemic harms. Together, they developed the Community Bill of Rights, a set of principles to reverse patterns of exploitation and extraction so that communities and institutions can work together from a place of mutual trust and respect.
FFI held our first-ever national convening, the Wellbeing Summit, in 2022. Over three days in Charlotte, NC, 150 allies and champions from diverse fields and geographies kindled a sense of movement and momentum that continued to guide and inform the organization in the years to come.
In 2021, a federal infrastructure bill emerged as a ripe opportunity to bring to life the insight that where and how we build matters deeply for wellbeing access. FFI co-authored articles making the case for change and built momentum for this vision through convenings of planners and city leaders.
When the U.S. Census Bureau’s Open Innovation Lab asked FFI to develop wellbeing measurement tools, we developed the Wellbeing Insights, Assets and Tradeoffs Tool (WIATT), with Cleveland and Kingston among the first cities to pilot this powerful approach to inclusive planning.
The reach and impact of WIATT on thinking in the field also surfaced demand in the climate field, and in 2024, FFI formally launched our work on climate adaptation in partnership with national field leaders.
In 2024, FFI was on the ground across the country, partnering to make meaningful shifts in planning and the built environment, community power building, child welfare, youth mental health, elder abuse prevention, public procurement, child welfare, housing and homelessness, and climate. Hundreds more changemakers engaged with FFI’s tools through virtual programs, such as the Wellbeing Design Challenge.
Despite this momentum and demand, we faced unprecedented headwinds in securing two key drivers of system change — talent and sustainable long-term funding. In October 2024, the Board of the Full Frame Initiative determined that because these factors were unlikely to improve in the near term, we risked being unable to insulate our community partners from bearing the brunt of resulting harms.
The Board voted to initiate a responsible and impactful wind-down of the organization’s operations. Our Mission Transition had three goals: Take Care of Our People, Take Care of Our Partners, and Help the Mission Live On. Together with our partners, we designed tailored endings of current work and envisioned what it would look like for the work to continue. The message was clear: “We’re going to keep this going.” We heard three needs for FFI’s last five months of work: access to content, connections among the community, and building confidence to keep the work going. For more about the national network of allies and our mission transition strategy, see Beyond FFI.
One of the primary drivers for choosing to close the organization as it did was a desire to defy the norms of how many nonprofits are forced to close and the harm that often results. In undertaking its organizational transition, FFI was committed to modeling a responsible ending and sharing, with transparency, learnings to equip the sector. Here is a round-up of the posts, interviews, and public statements during the wind-down period: