Before he founded The Difference Engine or taught civil rights law, Ehsan Zaffar was a child refugee in Los Angeles who helped change city policy.
His family had fled the Persian Gulf War, and his parents were forced to start over in low-wage jobs because their graduate degrees were not recognized in the United States. They received limited support, but it did not match what they had lost.
“This didn’t make any sense,” he said. “We were doing great.”
From their small apartment with mattresses on the floor, Ehsan watched his parents try to rebuild their lives.
He took matters into his own hands and wrote a letter to the Los Angeles mayor about how the city was treating refugees like his family. The mayor responded and told him he was right. Ehsan recalls that the city made him “mayor,” handed him a gavel and let him help pass refugee assistance ordinances.
“I changed something — it worked,” he said. “If you speak up and you’re assertive and do it for the right reasons, you can change things here.”
The Difference Engine grew out of the same drive to create change. He founded the organization to help communities design and build their own solutions, rather than rely only on lobbying, protesting or fundraising for outside help.
“What we don’t do with communities is we don’t really treat them as entrepreneurs,” he said. “Why can’t communities build a solution to a problem they’re having?”
The organization’s model centers on programs that meet people at different life stages and with various levels of experience. Through a partnership with Arizona State University, students and community members work together to turn community concerns into projects they can test and improve.
Since then, The Difference Engine has launched the Women’s Power and Influence Index, which evaluates how companies treat women in the workplace; Creative Justice Lab, a three-day program where high school and college students develop and pitch solutions to community challenges; the eight-month Distinguished Innovation Fellows program for people at, near or past retirement; and Difference Core, which serves early- and midcareer adults.
Another program, the People of Innovation Fund, is currently in development and intended for residents who want to support community projects without becoming entrepreneurs.
At first, the organization operated as a national effort, but Ehsan realized its work needed to be more local.
“You can’t really work with community entrepreneurs unless you choose a community,” he said.
With much of his team based in Southern California, The Difference Engine began looking at communities from San Pedro to Santa Ana, particularly lower- to middle-income and up-and-coming neighborhoods. Long Beach was a natural starting point. Many team members already lived in the city, and Ehsan was becoming involved in the community.
He also saw a place facing complex challenges, from environmental issues to housing and economic disparities, immigration pressures and the needs of a large, diverse population.
“It’s like a little mini United States,” Ehsan said. “It’s a microcosm of what’s happening in the country.”
He also pointed out how people are willing to experiment and push for change.
“Long Beach is a really innovative city,” Ehsan said. “People in Long Beach take risks. They’re hustlers.”
One Long Beach fellow, Dr. Leslie Young, is developing Immunization Record One, a digital immunization database designed to give families a lasting way to track vaccination records instead of relying on paper cards.
“Right now, if you get immunized, you get a card,” Ehsan said. “What if you lose the card? You have no other record anywhere.”
Another Long Beach fellow, Kathleen Adams, is working on the Lifewell LA Sharing Movement. Her project helps people feel more grounded and teaches them how to talk with one another about difficult topics, even when they disagree.
“It’s a way to get people grounded in a framework and teach them how to talk to each other about difficult topics,” he said.
Through the Creative Justice Lab, a student-led app called Ride Centric encouraged people to ride the Los Angeles Metro while supporting local shops and restaurants.
“It tracks your movement during your commute, and if you take the metro, when you get out of the station, all the businesses around you can give you discounts,” Ehsan said.
The Difference Engine is also planning to open a maker space in Long Beach, modeled after the one built in downtown Los Angeles. The space would give community members a place to work with the team, code software, use 3D printers and build physical projects.
“Sometimes building things requires people to be in a space,” he said.
Ehsan has made Long Beach the center of his work. He lives in the city, serves on local boards and spends much of his time meeting with community groups and students who want to build something new.
“I’m almost addicted to it,” Ehsan said. “I love helping people.”
Decades after writing a letter to the mayor, Ehsan still focuses on giving people the tools and support to speak up, build solutions and create change in their own communities.
To learn more about The Difference Engine, visit thedifferenceengine.asu.edu
"If you speak up and you’re assertive and do it for the right reasons, you can change things here.”