Supporting the scaling up of evidence based programs in schools: A Community catalyst Framework for Implementation.

Schools and educators are often asked to implement programs shown to be effective in reducing a number of mental health, and societal ills like bullying and peer victimization. While they often seen as the ideal contexts for reaching many children at the same time, the capacity of schools and educators to respond to the increasing demand for their expanded role in advancing the mental health and well-being of students is poorly understood and supported. Schools are often overburdened with growing curriculum demands, increasing class sizes, and special needs children. Our research examines the challenges and opportunities of schools as implementers of evidence-based programs. We have developed and are investigating the usefulness of a new Community Catalyst implementation framework that identifies programs champions in both the community and schools and supports them to act locally to enable high quality program implementation and scale up.

Faculty Supervisor:

Bonnie Leadbeater

Student:

Joelle Taos Taknint

Partner:

Rock Solid Foundation

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Victoria