Abstract
This article describes and evaluates the implementation of an innovative approach to systems change, the incubation approach, which was developed on a systems change project designed to increase the capacity of multiple systems (e.g., law enforcement, child protection, domestic violence, mental health, early education) to respond to children’s exposure to violence. The incubation approach encourages change agents to collaborate with project staff to gently nurture, or “incubate,” feasible and warranted change in target systems. Project staff gain concrete commitment from motivated and accessible change agents and collaborate with those agents to implement change actions. This approach works well with committed, executive-level change agents in target systems, with stable systems that have low turnover and well-integrated subsystems, and when seed funds are provided to key organizations.
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Acknowledgements
This project was supported by Grant # 2000JWVXK004 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice.
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Staggs, S.L., White, M.L., Schewe, P.A. et al. Changing systems by changing individuals: the incubation approach to systems change. Am J Community Psychol 39, 365–379 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9103-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9103-6