What are the effective system change strategies developed by states that can be used to increase youth involvement and self-determination?
The Robert Wood Johnson foundation funded 19 state self-determination projects in 1996. Strategies gleaned from these projects include: • Flexibility: allowing local providers the opportunity to utilize their own resources in ways that will benefit their unique program, school, or community; • Staff Leadership: reliance upon identified staff to lead the systems change process; • Focus on Individuals: an approach that focuses on the needs of individuals rather than programs; • Pilot Projects: implementation through pilot projects designed to test new structures, policies, and practices before they are brought to the whole system; • System-wide Organization: implementation through system-wide organization that changes the structure and functioning of the entire service system; • Long-term Capacity: conceptualizing change as the development of a long-term capacity to support individuals in their communities, as well as schools; • Bottom-up and Top-down: addressing change from the bottom u
