Social change at the local level: A psychobiography of Khali Sweeney from Detroit's downtown boxing gym

OBJECTIVE: This psychobiography analyzes the life of Khali Sweeney from Detroit's Downtown Boxing Gym to understand his motivation for and methods as a social change agent. In doing so, the project also considers how to prepare the next generation of youth development leaders as social change agents. METHOD: We conducted a nine‐step psychobiography based on recommendations from established psychobiographical methods. Using a team‐based, thematic analysis approach we analyzed contextual, first‐, second‐, and third‐ person data from the perspective of Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST). RESULTS: Results suggest Khali is an effective social change agent due to five interrelated factors. Analyzing Khali's life through the lens of PVEST also revealed his experiences resulted in two realizations central to him becoming a social change agent: the people and services that are supposed to serve youth at times do not, and; individuals like him can step up to meet youth needs. CONCLUSIONS: Results point to several important lessons related to transformational leadership theory that can enable YDP leaders to serve as social change agents.