 The Center for Health Achievement Neighborhoods Growth and Ethnic Studies (CHANGES) is a center established at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education in 1994 by Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer. Since its inception, CHANGES has been involved in a variety of activities focused on designing, implementing and evaluating programs that promote resiliency among racially diverse children and youth from low-resource communities.
Based on lessons learned from our research and programming efforts, CHANGES also develops and coordinates professional development training for members of youth-serving systems (e.g., educational, mental health, juvenile justice) and community-based organizations to assist them in effectively addressing unique challenges related to their work with children and youth. Professional development activities help educators, service providers and others who work directly with youth examine the assumptions that underlie the work they do and foster new ways of thinking about normative development. In addition, CHANGES helps organizations use their own data to improve critical decisions about how to best support children, youth and their families. |
