Building Capacity to Implement Community Schools

This chapter outlines the importance of capacity-building assistance in implementing the community school strategy with quality; describes and assesses the work of the nation's oldest and largest community school capacity-building organization—the Children's Aid National Center for Community Schools; and positions that work in the context of community school reform efforts nationally and internationally. The chapter provides case studies of capacity-building efforts with three community school initiatives, two in the United States and one in Europe, and also offers a listing and brief description of other engagements from 2012 to 2018.

MindMatters Plus: A Capacity-building Framework for Working with Secondary School Students with High Support Mental Health Needs

This article describes the history, development and status of MindMatters Plus (MM+). MM+ is a project developed within the context of MindMatters (MM), an ongoing initiative which aims to promote mental health within Australian secondary schools. MM+ is an integral component of the MM suite of initiatives and is consistent with its underlying philosophy of developing student resilience through a “whole of school”, capacity-building approach. The specific goal of MM+ is to develop best practice approaches to improving the mental health outcomes of secondary school students with high support mental health needs (SWHSNs) and is achieved in several ways: (1) assisting schools in early identification; (2) facilitating the implementation of preventative and other interventions; (3) developing new initiatives and refining existing processes, policies and strategies and; (4) encouraging the development of timely and accessible networks of care with external agencies and community partnerships.