Our Expertise: Brain Science Research and Applications

Change in Mind Institute

A collaborative experience where participating organizations will determine their own paths for creating the transformation best suited to their unique needs. The process of embedding brain science principles will lead to improved outcomes for children and families. In addition, it will further enhance their organizational cultures and leadership ability to work collaboratively with partners to build better service systems and policies.

Learn the key strategies for infusing brain science into your organization’s culture, programs, and practices.

“Our Change in Mind work shifted us to more of a project approach that used design-thinking concepts in terms of how we do things: How we translate the research into evidence, how we factor in brain science, how we design or implement programs, how we address unmet needs, and how we do innovative work.”

— Gabriel McGaughey, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin

Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative

The Social Current Change in Mind Institute supports 10 Texas-based organizations through its Learning Collaborative focused on applying brain science and race equity. The Texas sites selected include:

  • Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans
  • Austin Public Education Foundation
  • Bastrop County Cares
  • Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston
  • Children’s Museum Houston
  • Family Service Center of Galveston Count
  • Fort Bend County Behavioral Health Services
  • New Hope Housing Inc.
  • Santa Maria Hostel Inc.
  • Texas Center for Child and Family Studies

The sites were chosen by a selection committee that included representatives from the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, NORC at the University of Chicago, Episcopal Health Foundation, Powell Foundation, graduates of the Change in Mind Institute, and subject matter experts in the Texas area.

Through their engagement in the Change in Mind learning collaborative experience, participating organizations are determining their own paths for creating the transformation best suited to their unique needs. The process of embedding brain science and race equity principles and practices leads to improved outcomes for children and families. In addition, it further enhances their organizational cultures and leadership ability to work collaboratively with partners to build better service systems and policies.

The Change in Mind Institute received more than $727,000 each from both The Powell Foundation and Episcopal Health Foundation for the Texas initiative. In addition, St. David’s Foundation provided over $310,000 to support the development of critical tools that bring a race equity lens into this initiative and its evaluation. Finally, an anonymous donor is funding rigorous outcome and impact studies of multiple levels of this work.

“We are thrilled to lead this collaborative learning process in partnership with these 10 sites,” says Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “As we’ve seen with our previous learning collaborative, understanding and embedding the core story of brain development, along with racial equity principles, can have a profound positive impact on an organization’s internal operations as well as its work to build resilience in children and families.”

About Episcopal Health Foundation
By providing millions of dollars in grants, working with congregations and community partners, and providing important research, the Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF) supports solutions that address the underlying causes of poor health in Texas. EHF is based in Houston, has more than $1 billion in estimated assets, and operates as a supporting organization of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. #HealthNotJustHealthcare

About The Powell Foundation
The Powell Foundation is a private, family foundation based in Houston, Texas and focused on improving the lives of Harris, Travis and Walker County residents. The Foundation seeks to foster community wellbeing by empowering children, families, and individuals with the conditions, supports and skills necessary to thrive. It is particularly focused on ensuring that children achieve college and career readiness by supporting the entire education continuum, from early childhood development through post-secondary education completion. Visit powellfoundation.org for more information

About St. David’s Foundation
The mission of St. David’s Foundation is to help improve the health and well-being of the most underserved Central Texas neighbors in Williamson, Travis, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell Counties. Through a unique partnership with St. David’s HealthCare, the Foundation invests over $75 million each year into the community making them one of the largest health foundations in the country. St. David’s Foundation investments have helped improve health prospects for hundreds of thousands of Central Texans.

Follow these Leaders

As part of the Change in Mind Institute’s inaugural class, these organizations have found promising ways to infuse brain science into their every day policies and practices.

Through access to brain science experts, partners, and fellow sites, Children’s learned how to reframe conversations on homelessness and housing instability to focus on building resilience and health and well-being. Changing the dialogue proved to be a key strategy for building sectors and achieve greater systems change.

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As a member of the Change In Mind Learning Collaborative, The Family Partnership’s theory of change — as well as beliefs, purpose, and pursuits — would evolve to include advances in brain science as central to a renewed sense of meaning and value.

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A year into its trauma-informed transformation process, MOBC was accepted into another groundbreaking initiative focused on applying neurosciences to the revitalization of communities: Chang in Mind, a 15-member learning collaborative with funding through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities in partnership with the Palix Foundations’s Alberta Family Wellness Initiative.

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BBBS Calgary and Area’s involvement with Change in Mind would revolutionize its approach to mentoring youth and catapult the agency into a role of forward-thinking leadership.

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Balancing ACEs with HOPE

Balancing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) with HOPE presents evidence for HOPE—Health Outcomes of Positive Experiences, a framework that studies and promotes positive child and family well-being—based on 2019 data that reinforce the need to promote positive experiences for children and families to foster healthy childhood development despite the adversity common in so many families.

The data:

  • Establish a spirit of hope and optimism and make the case that positive experiences have lasting impact on human development and functioning, without ignoring well-documented concerns related to toxic environments
  • Demonstrate, through science, the powerful contribution of positive relationships and experiences to the development of healthy children and adults
  • Describe actions related to current social norms regarding parenting practices, particularly those associated with healthy child development. These actions are based on data that suggest that American adults are willing to intervene personally to prevent child abuse and neglect
  • Reflect upon the positive returns on investment that our society can expect as we make changes in policies, practices, and future research to support positive childhood environments that foster the healthy development of children

Balancing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) with HOPE contributes to a growing body of work—the Science of Thriving—that encourages us to better understand and support optimal child health and development.

To assist with getting the vast knowledge of positive childhood experiences into policies, practices, and systems to realize lasting change, investigators recommend in the report that efforts by pediatricians, early childhood educators, state and local governments move beyond screening and referral for problems, and enter into partnerships with parents to support them in raising their children.

Other recommendations include advancing a positive construct of health and the HOPE framework, and investing in science-aligned interventions that support positive parenting practices.

Jennifer Jones, director of the Change In Mind Institute at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, co-authored this report, and Alliance President and CEO Susan Dreyfus served as a reviewer.

Balancing Adverse Childhood Experiences With HOPE document
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Change in Mind Initiative: Final Evaluation

This report assesses the effectiveness of Alliance for Strong Families and Communities Change in Mind initiative at both site and cohort levels. It also discusses implications of findings and recommendations for the future of Change in Mind.

Through the Alliance’s Change in Mind initiative, a cohort of 15 U.S. and Canadian organizations demonstrated the impact of intentionally infusing brain science research findings into their programs and organizations. The cohort also has identified new insights into the longer-term opportunities and challenge of facilitating and accelerating change at the systems and policy levels. The initiative, which was conducted in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Palix Foundation’s Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, found that social sector organizations of all types and sizes can contribute to systems and policy change. Another breakthrough finding was that rather than treating Change in Mind projects as stand-alone activities most sites viewed Change in Mind as a “game changer” and embedded brain science principles throughout their organizations.

Change in Mind Initiative report
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Change in Mind Overview, Findings, and Lessons Learned

An initiative of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, Change in Mind is a learning laboratory for understanding how advances in neuroscience can be leveraged to create broader systems and policy change. Through the Change in Mind cohort’s 10 U.S. and five Canadian organizations, it has demonstrated the impact of intentionally infusing brain science and evidence into programs and organizations, and identified new insights into the longer-term challenge of facilitating and accelerating change at the systems and policy levels.

The Change in Mind initiative used a developmental evaluation approach to understand how the Change in Mind sites addressed the challenges of:

  • Infusing brain science research into their organizational cultures, programs, and practices
  • Leveraging scientific advances in brain development to facilitate sector and systems change
  • Accelerating systems change within a larger policy context
  • Supporting peer learning through a peer-based learning community model

The evaluation was designed to monitor, track, and map the sites’ development, identifying patterns of activity across organizational types and country contexts. Change in Mind’s use of a developmental evaluation approach, rapid testing of program and practice innovations, and tracking of the evolution of the sites’ theories of change distinguished Change in Mind from other ACEs and resilience initiatives.

This approach was designed to enhance understanding of the sites’ strategies to align their internal program and organizational practices, external community capacity building, and systems and policy change efforts with advances in neuroscience.The evaluation was not designed to determine best practices of the sites, but to uncover promising patterns of practice across the sites.

Part of a series of four briefs examining the evaluation’s site-level findings, this brief focuses on how the Change in Mind sites designed and implemented multi-level theories of change to transform their programs, organizations, sectors, and communities. These pathways were often aligned with internal efforts leading to external action.

Change in Mind Overview, Findings, and Lessons Learned document
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Transformation through Organizational Change<

An initiative of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, Change in Mind is a learning laboratory for understanding how advances in neuroscience can be leveraged to create broader systems and policy change. Through the Change in Mind cohort’s 10 U.S. and five Canadian organizations, it has demonstrated the impact of intentionally infusing brain science and evidence into programs and organizations, and identified new insights into the longer-term challenge of facilitating and accelerating change at the systems and policy levels.

The Change in Mind initiative used a developmental evaluation approach to understand how the Change in Mind sites addressed the challenges of:

  • Infusing brain science research into their organizational cultures, programs, and practices
  • Leveraging scientific advances in brain development to facilitate sector and systems change
  • Accelerating systems change within a larger policy context
  • Supporting peer learning through a peer-based learning community model

The evaluation was designed to monitor, track, and map the sites’ development, identifying patterns of activity across organizational types and country contexts. Change in Mind’s use of a developmental evaluation approach, rapid testing of program and practice innovations, and tracking of the evolution of the sites’ theories of change distinguished Change in Mind from other ACEs and resilience initiatives.

This approach was designed to enhance understanding of the sites’ strategies to align their internal program and organizational practices, external community capacity building, and systems and policy change efforts with advances in neuroscience.The evaluation was not designed to determine best practices of the sites, but to uncover promising patterns of practice across the sites.

Part of a series of four briefs examining the evaluation’s site-level findings, this brief focuses on the Change in Mind sites work to create internal organizational change by aligning brain-science informed organizational goals and resources, building organizational capacity, and adapting their programs and practices to incorporate neuroscience findings.

Transformation through Organizational Change document
Download Report

Transformation through Systems and Policy Change

An initiative of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, Change in Mind is a learning laboratory for understanding how advances in neuroscience can be leveraged to create broader systems and policy change. Through the Change in Mind cohort’s 10 U.S. and five Canadian organizations, it has demonstrated the impact of intentionally infusing brain science and evidence into programs and organizations, and identified new insights into the longer-term challenge of facilitating and accelerating change at the systems and policy levels.

The Change in Mind initiative used a developmental evaluation approach to understand how the Change in Mind sites addressed the challenges of:

  • Infusing brain science research into their organizational cultures, programs, and practices
  • Leveraging scientific advances in brain development to facilitate sector and systems change
  • Accelerating systems change within a larger policy context
  • Supporting peer learning through a peer-based learning community model

The evaluation was designed to monitor, track, and map the sites’ development, identifying patterns of activity across organizational types and country contexts. Change in Mind’s use of a developmental evaluation approach, rapid testing of program and practice innovations, and tracking of the evolution of the sites’ theories of change distinguished Change in Mind from other ACEs and resilience initiatives.

This approach was designed to enhance understanding of the sites’ strategies to align their internal program and organizational practices, external community capacity building, and systems and policy change efforts with advances in neuroscience.The evaluation was not designed to determine best practices of the sites, but to uncover promising patterns of practice across the sites.

Part of a series of four briefs examining the evaluation’s site-level findings, this brief focuses on how the Change in Mind sites advanced systems and policy change by building networks of collaborators, educating their communities about brain science, facilitating sector-specific change, and advocating for larger cross-sector policy change.

Transformation through Systems and Policy Change document
Download Report

Advancing the Collection and Use of Data through Rapid Testing and Evaluation

An initiative of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, Change in Mind is a learning laboratory for understanding how advances in neuroscience can be leveraged to create broader systems and policy change. Through the Change in Mind cohort’s 10 U.S. and five Canadian organizations, it has demonstrated the impact of intentionally infusing brain science and evidence into programs and organizations, and identified new insights into the longer-term challenge of facilitating and accelerating change at the systems and policy levels.

The Change in Mind initiative used a developmental evaluation approach to understand how the Change in Mind sites addressed the challenges of:

  • Infusing brain science research into their organizational cultures, programs, and practices
  • Leveraging scientific advances in brain development to facilitate sector and systems change
  • Accelerating systems change within a larger policy context
  • Supporting peer learning through a peer-based learning community model

The evaluation was designed to monitor, track, and map the sites’ development, identifying patterns of activity across organizational types and country contexts. Change in Mind’s use of a developmental evaluation approach, rapid testing of program and practice innovations, and tracking of the evolution of the sites’ theories of change distinguished Change in Mind from other ACEs and resilience initiatives.

This approach was designed to enhance understanding of the sites’ strategies to align their internal program and organizational practices, external community capacity building, and systems and policy change efforts with advances in neuroscience.The evaluation was not designed to determine best practices of the sites, but to uncover promising patterns of practice across the sites.

Part of a series of four briefs examining the evaluation’s site-level findings, this brief focuses on how the Change in Mind sites improved their collection and use of ACEs, and resilience data, using rapid feedback methods to improve their data and other science-aligned programs and practices.

Advancing the Collection and Use of Data through Rapid Testing and Evaluation document
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Using a Brain Science-Infused Lens in Policy Development: Achieving Healthier Outcomes for Children

Through the community-based work of the 15-member cohort, the goal of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities Change in Mind initiative is to determine if this groundbreaking science can transform policies to move the needle on some of the most difficult social issues facing our communities.

The expertise of the cohort was employed to further this goal, as well as inform the greater public with the development of this guide to provide insight and direction to the broader field on using brain science to inform policy.

Developed by the Change in Mind Initiative Policy Community of Practice, the policy guide declares that while science is the foundation, the perspectives of the families and communities served should also influence policy.

After the guide reviews the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University research on what is takes to build healthy brains, it details 10 values and five principles of brain science-infused policy and recommend that they guide policy deliberations.

Using a Brain Science-Infused Lens in Policy Development document
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