Volume 3: No. 2, April 2006

ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Facilitating Change in School Health: A Qualitative Study of Schools� Experiences Using the School Health Index

This figure is a flow chart showing the facilitator's work in three stages. The first stage, shown on the left, is 揜oles and Tasks of Facilitator,� which include 1) "Garner Administration Buy-in,� 2) 揃uild Team Structure,� and 3) 揊oster Team Sustainability.� Each of these three roles is shown in a box with a list of tasks to be accomplished. To garner administration buy-in, the facilitator should obtain support before the work begins and obtain a commitment from the administration to allow the team to meet regularly and to implement the recommendations. To build team structure, the facilitator should include stakeholders from across the school and foster team cohesion through regularly scheduled meetings, consensus building, and management of group conflicts. To foster team sustainability, the facilitator should maintain team motivation through coaching and a focus on feasible tasks to enhance a sense of accomplishment. Each box has arrows that point to the right to the second stage, 揇ecision Making and Commitment to Action.�

揇ecision Making and Commitment to Action� is represented by three boxes, two on the left and one on the right. The first box on the left includes 搒hift the locus of decision making from the administration to the health promotion team�; the second box reads, 揵uild team capacity for group decision making.� These boxes lead to the box on the right, 揅ommitment to action.� The 揅ommitment to action� box has an arrow that points to three boxes in the last stage: 揚otential Impact on Implementation of Health Promotion Initiatives.� These potential impacts are 1) 揇evelopment of concrete action plans, including expanding political support for initiatives,� 2) 揅apacity to undertake more complex tasks,� and 3) 揅apacity to undertake initiatives requiring collaboration across multiple arenas of the school.�

Figure. Inductively derived hypothetical model of facilitator role in supporting schools’ work with CDC’s School Health Index and implementation of health promotion initiatives.

Return to article

The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors’ affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.

|

| |

This page last reviewed October 25, 2011