The Social Determinants of Hope:

Photo By: Erica Chambers

Why the Future Our Kids Imagine Depends

on the World We Build

Understanding the Three Hopes

Before we talk about the social determinants of hope—why some young people can imagine a better future and others struggle to see past tomorrow—it’s important to understand the three kinds of hope that shape all my work.

1. Traditional Hope: Desire, Decision, Direction

This is the foundation. Based on the groundbreaking Hope work of Charles “Rick” Snyder.

• Desire: wanting something better for yourself.

• Decision: choosing to take the next right step.

• Direction: charting a clear path and staying on it.

Traditional hope teaches youth that their choices matter, and that forward movement—even small steps—builds momentum.

2. Strategic Hope: Humanity, Optimism, Perspective, Empathy

Strategic Hope is found in the HOPE Framework many of you have seen me teach and model:

• Humanity: seeing each young person’s dignity and worth.

• Optimism: helping them imagine real paths forward.

• Perspective: supporting meaning-making around adversity.

• Empathy: creating relationships strong enough to carry them through their hardest moments.

Strategic Hope is what adults, schools, and systems do to help young people move from desire to direction. It is the intentional practice of creating the conditions where hope can grow. This framework comes directly from my lived transformation—from Hasan Davis, Juvenile Delinquent to Hasan Davis, Juris Doctor—and it reflects everything I learned about what young people need in order not just to survive, but to rise.

3. Aspirational Hope: The Work of Hope Dealing

Aspirational Hope is the highest level—the place where young people become co-creators of possibility. It’s the work of Hope Dealers: individuals and communities who activate hope in others through connection, courage, creativity, and accountability.

This is where young people stop being passive recipients of help and start becoming leaders, storytellers, healers, mentors, and builders in their own right.

These three Hopes overlap. They reinforce each other. And when we understand them together, we begin to see hope not just as an inner feeling but as a social and structural outcome.

This brings us to the core truth:

Hope Is Not an Individual Trait. Hope Is a Social Condition.

When I talk about hope, folks sometimes think I’m describing a feeling—something soft, quiet, and personal. But after more than 25 years working with young people, families, and front-line professionals across education, justice, and child-serving systems, I’ve learned something simple and powerful:

The young people we serve don’t lose hope because they’re weak or unmotivated. They lose hope because the systems and environments around them make it nearly impossible to imagine a future where effort leads to possibility, and possibility leads to progress.

That’s not a character flaw.That’s a context problem.

And if we want to help young people build stronger futures, we have to stop treating hope like a private emotion and start treating it like a public responsibility.

That’s where the Social Determinants of Hope come in.

Why Hope Needs a Wider Lens

In public health, the “social determinants of health” describe the conditions that shape people’s health outcomes: housing, education, community safety, transportation, environmental stability, and economic opportunity.

Hope works the same way.

Young people learn what to expect from life by watching how the adults around them live, how their communities function, and how institutions respond to their needs. Hope grows—or withers—in the spaces between the individual and the world they’re navigating.

Research backs this up. Longitudinal studies from Brookings and decades of developmental science show that hope is built through:

• social support

• community safety

• perceived fairness

• access to opportunity

• cultural and spiritual grounding

• economic and educational stability

That’s why at Hasan Davis Solutions, we use the HOPE Framework—Humanity, Optimism, Perspective, Empathy—not just as a personal development tool but as a way to think about communities, classrooms, and systems.

Because hope must be grown in the soil of people’s lives.

The Social Determinants of Hope

1. Social Support & Connectedness: Humanity + Empathy

Every time a young person tells me, “You’re the first person who ever listened to me,” I’m reminded that connection isn’t extra. It’s essential.

Supportive families, mentors, teachers, counselors, and peers create the emotional scaffolding where hope takes its first breath. These relationships tell young people:

• You matter.

• You’re not alone.

• You deserve to take the next step.

Isolation isn’t just sad—it’s one of the strongest predictors of hopelessness. And it’s rising.

This is why the Humanity and Empathy pillars of Strategic Hope are foundational.

We create hope when we slow down, look someone in the eyes, and show them that connection is still possible.

2. Economic Stability: Optimism + Perspective

It’s hard to picture a future when you’re trying to survive the day.

Poverty narrows a child’s view of what’s possible because it demands all their attention. Economic instability teaches young people that planning ahead is a luxury they can’t afford. Scarcity trains the brain to stay in crisis mode.

But when families have stable housing, safe neighborhoods, and steady employment, everything changes. Suddenly, hope becomes a practice—not a wish.

Through the HOPE lens:

• Optimism means believing effort can create change.

• Perspective helps young people understand their struggles as systemic, not personal failures.

This shift reduces shame, restores agency, and opens space for Decision and Direction.

3. Community & Environment: Humanity + Perspective

I’ve visited schools where students look out broken windows, walk through metal detectors, and navigate hallways lined with police officers—daily reminders that they are seen as a threat.

I’ve also visited schools where students are greeted by name, surrounded by art, and families are welcomed participants in their learning journey. Reminders that their presence matters.

Guess which building holds more hope?

Safe neighborhoods, strong community centers, quality schools, well-maintained parks, and welcoming public spaces send powerful messages:

• You belong here.

• You are part of something greater.

• This community sees a future for you.

Communities that invest in their youth create hope simply by existing.

4. Cultural & Spiritual Anchors: Humanity + Optimism + Empathy

Culture and spirituality often give young people their first tools for making sense of the world. Stories, rituals, ancestors, and collective wisdom offer grounding when life becomes overwhelming.

Cultural identity teaches youth:

• My people have faced worse and survived.

• I come from a lineage of creators and problem-solvers.

• My story doesn’t end here.

Spiritual practice—whether rooted in faith, meditation, nature, or community—creates space for reflection, healing, and forward movement.

My own living history work is deeply tied to this idea. For 30 years, I’ve rooted my interpretations in the symbolism of the mythical Sankofa bird, one of the most recognized Adinkra symbols of the Akan people of Ghana. Sankofa instructs us to go back and fetch what we forgot: our history, our belonging, our meaning, and the lessons that shaped us.

That isn’t just cultural reflection.

It’s a cultural determinant of hope.

When people understand their past, they gain perspective on their present and a clearer vision of what’s possible in their future.

5. Education & Opportunity: Optimism + Direction

When young people see real pathways—apprenticeships, job training, mentoring, internships, tutoring, and service opportunities—they start imagining themselves in the story of their own life.

Opportunity fuels Optimism.

Opportunity points young people toward Direction.

Without clear pathways, hope struggles to grow. With them? Everything changes.

6. Equity & Justice: Humanity + Perspective

Some young people don’t lose hope because of trauma or poverty—they lose hope because they are treated unfairly again and again by adults and institutions that were supposed to protect them.

Systemic inequities erode hope from the inside out.When a young person believes the game is rigged, why would they invest in the future?

Fairness, inclusion, and accountability aren’t just moral imperatives.

They are hope-building strategies.

Justice teaches youth:

• I am worth protecting.

• If harm happens, someone will help repair it.

• The system can change—and so can I.

This is the heart of the Restorative HOPE work I’ve developed with justice, education, and child-serving systems: replacing fear and force with humanity and accountability.

The HOPE Framework as a Social Determinants Blueprint

The more I work with communities, the more I realize how closely the HOPE pillars align with the social determinants themselves:

• Humanity → belonging, dignity, equity

• Optimism → opportunity, stability, mobility

• Perspective → meaning, resilience, context

• Empathy → connection, trust, healing

I developed the HOPE Framework to help leaders, educators, and youth workers operationalize the science of hope. It gives teams a shared language for designing policies and practices that don’t just manage behavior—they cultivate hope.

When hope is present, young people:

• pursue goals

• make healthier decisions

• stay engaged in school

• build stronger coping skills

• recover from setbacks more quickly

• see themselves as part of a future worth working toward

This isn’t magic. It’s the result of environments that support their growth.

Hope Is a Social Outcome—And a Shared Responsibility

Hope isn’t something we hand to young people.It’s something we build with them.

Every safe school, every mentoring program, every community center, every art class, every fair policy, every empathetic adult moves a young person one step closer to the future they deserve.

If we want our children to carry hope, we must create the conditions where hope can thrive.

That is the work of a Hope Dealer.

That is the work of families, communities, and systems.

And that is the work I have committed to at Hasan Davis Solutions.

 Stay Hopeful Y'all,

Hasan