This emerged from our former Impact Assessment and Shared Learning initiative to support critical thinking about and documentation of our rights-based work for transformation and justice. The initiative aimed more generally to strengthen our ability to write about change in an analytical, powerful and effective way. The stories, written by staff members most intimately connected to our ‘change’ work in the field ‘the front’, were developed through an empowering writing journey through five-day critical writing retreat, mentorship and peer support to deepen analysis.