The Self-Empowerment and Equity for Change Initiative (SEE Change)
About SEE Change
The Self-Empowerment and Equity for Change (SEE Change) is an initiative that conducts international gender-informed research, evidence-based training, and support services that help entrepreneurs and employees build positive mental habits, realize their leadership potential, and achieve their personal and professional goals. SEE Change is housed in the Department of International Health at the Johns ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.
- Our programs and research agenda centers on skills and competencies that build “Personal Agency"—the ability to make and act upon important decisions in one's life.
- With these skills anyone can better realize their potential and close the gap between their valuable opportunities and actions.
- SEE Change researchers and partners are focused on translating and scaling several evidence-based interventions from the fields of behavioral health communications, social psychology, behavioral economics, and global mental health research.
Background
SEE Change was formalized in 2020 to coalesce several years of empowerment research and programmatic tools applied in public health and economic development programs around the world. Building from its existing base of certified trainers and research results from over a dozen countries globally, this initiative seeks to expand the evidence base on the associated impacts of a personal agency–based intervention on individual-, organization-, and community-level outcomes.
Current research efforts are designed to assess impacts of this personal agency training approach on health and well-being, as well as economic outcomes for entrepreneurs and businesses.
SEE Change engages researchers, faculty and students at Johns Hopkins to support monitoring and evaluation of training impacts and support services provided directly by the SEE Change team and through its global network of certified trainers and partners. Findings are made available to private sector companies, governments, multilateral agencies, academics, and development practitioners to grow the understanding and deployment of this approach globally.
SEE Change research and programmatic activities also include efforts to address gender equality and employee resilience with partners in the energy and agriculture sectors.
. If you encounter any issues with your request, contact Paul Spurzem at paul.spurzem@jhu.edu.
For general inquiries and requests, please write to Anita Shankar at anita.shankar@jhu.edu.
Mainstreaming Personal Agency in Global Development: A roadmap for funders, implementers, and researchers to understand and leverage personal agency approaches for human flourishing
This roadmap provides background on the concept of personal agency and its need in development, and outlines agency’s potential, key challenges, and how agency-based approaches work. It draws on a growing body of evidence, including lessons from the Self-Empowerment and Equity for Change (SEE Change) Initiative, and actionable recommendations from social psychologists and development economists around the world.
Our mission is to enable individuals, groups and organizations to empower 1 billion people with personal agency practices, thereby catalyzing human flourishing.
