THEORY OF CHANGE EXPLAINED
THE MECHANISM
Young people share their stories in community and develop essential relationships.
The stories young people create shape their sense of self and possibility.
Social Connection
Young people grow essential developmental relationships as they share their stories with peers and supportive adults.
DEVELOPMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS
Developmental relationships are close connections through which young people discover who they are, cultivate abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around them. They are two-way relationships that seek to flatten hierarchy and allow both parties to change each other for the better.
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Social Theory of Contextual Difference
Social difference education is designed to help students who are disadvantaged in mainstream educational settings succeed by:
1) Showing them stories of successful people who came from similar backgrounds
2) Teaching them to understand that their disadvantages are systemic issues, not personal failings
GRAPHIC of essential components of developmental relationships
Narrative Identity Development
The stories young people create shape their sense of self and possibility.
When young people make meaning of their experiences and share them in community, those stories become the foundation of developing their narrative identity.
WHAT IS NARRATIVE IDENTITY?
“Narrative identity is a person’s internalized and evolving life story… [It] reconstructs the autobiographical past and imagines the future in such a way as to provide a person’s life with some degree of unity, purpose, and meaning” (McAdams & McLean, 2013).
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When young people put their experiences into words, they are not just remembering. They are deciding what those experiences mean and actively constructing a sense of self (McAdams & McLean, 2013).
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Young people whose stories find growth in hardship, and who see themselves as authors of their own lives, report stronger mental health and wellness. Young people whose stories do neither report higher rates of depression and lower life satisfaction (McAdams & McLean, 2013). Our curriculum is built around this growth-minded storytelling, guiding young people to frame their experiences as moments of learning and agency.
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McLean and Breen (2009) examined meaning-making across students ages 14 to 18 and found a clear age-related increase, with the sharpest gains showing up in the later teenage years. PLUS ME works with students across this developmental window.
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Meaning-Making
Meaning-making interventions change the ways people make sense of themselves in social situations.
It provides the essential psychosocial grounding needed to allow existing academic skills to be expressed. This work has longer positive impacts on learning success than direct academic tutoring alone. When young people make meaning of their experiences and share them in community, those stories become the foundation of developing their narrative identity.
Elements of meaning-making GRAPHIC:
Self-affirmation
Belonging
Growth mindset
Rites of passage (culturally-based, structured mentoring)
Pathways (envisioning and aspiring to future possible selves; making a plan)
Enhancing teacher empathy (changing how teachers interpret and respond to student behavior)
THE OUTCOMES
Young people who make meaning of their experiences report higher wellness.
When students add their story, they are better prepared to shape their future.
Young people who know their story gain the confidence to navigate the transitions that define their future:
The essential work of deciding what they want, why, and how to prepare for their goals
The leadership opportunities that ask them to speak up
The college essay that asks Who are you?
The job interview that opens with Tell me about yourself.
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HOW BRIEF INTERVENTIONS PRODUCE LASTING WELLNESS AND READINESS
Our workshops are only a few hours long. A common assumption is that short programs produce limited impact. The research shows the opposite: a well-designed, brief experience rooted in meaning-making can shape how a young person thinks, feels, and acts for years to come.
Researchers call this kind of engagement a wise intervention: a short, targeted experience that shifts how a young person interprets a challenge. When a young person reflects on their own experience and puts it into words, the understanding stays with them and continues to shape what follows.
Two studies show how this works in practice: