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National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention

Leadership for Change

Here in Leadership for Change you will find guidance about how your role as project director positions you to be a change agent within your community. At the heart of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative is the expectation that in implementing the comprehensive plan, long-term changes will occur across systems positively affecting the health and safety of children, youth, and families. Systems change supports long-lasting changes in

  • how individuals practice within systems as schools and mental health clinics
  • the systems’ capacities, policies, and procedures

These kinds of changes can mean that the positive outcomes gained for children, youth, and families through an SS/HS Initiative can continue well after funding itself is gone. Leading for systems change through an SS/HS Initiative can leave behind a legacy of healthier students and safer schools.

Leadership for Change includes the following sections:

  • Project Directors as Leaders for Change
  • Integrating the Elements: A Key to Systems Change
  • Leading Large Scale Change Initiatives
  • Challenges to Leading for Systems Change