An approach to action research of innovative and disruptive socioecological understandings of young people's wellbeing, resilience, and engagement in middle school was piloted with a coalition of school principals, lead teachers, police, and community development professionals by an RMIT research team. This coalition was built around the Hume-Whittlesea Local Learning and Employment Network and the Whittlesea Youth Commitment Committee in outer northern Melbourne, Australia. Action research facilitated the collaborative design of interventions for reducing middle school disengagement. These were then expressed in logic model terms to guide implementation and subsequent evaluation. Logic models clarified how local innovations, situated in an authorizing environment, can develop promising practices that contribute to system reform. Our project involved characterizing ecologies of young people's engagement, resilience, and wellbeing as part of a place-based strategy.