Voices from the Field:

      Inspiration from Others in Changemaking Spaces

The Impact Education team at Creative Visions is excited to collaborate with Directing Change, one of our activation partners for #CreateConnectCare, our youth mental health initiative. 

Directing Change is a California-based program that supports statewide efforts to prevent suicide, reduce stigma and discrimination related to mental illness, and promote students' mental health and wellness.



Recently, we spent time with Devin Saragosa-Harris, the Senior Program Manager at Directing Change, and her work knocks us out. We know you’lll be inspired by her, too. 

Meet Devin Saragosa-Harris of Directing Change

"Hello! I am a senior program manager with Directing Change and have been part of the organization for five years. I lead our statewide mini-grant program, which provides funding to schools and community-based organizations to help with both the program's implementation and dissemination of these youth-produced films at local events. I also manage operations around our annual statewide film contest and evaluation efforts. 

I got involved because I wanted to work upstream to prevent mental health challenges from developing and to encourage youth not to wait so long to get help, which is a major focus of Directing Change’s programming. I strongly believe in Directing Change’s mission of empowering youth to share their experiences and perspectives around mental health and suicide prevention; by giving young people a way to express themselves on these topics, we give them space to both learn about mental health and to teach others in a way that is authentic and powerful.

California youth, teachers, and any schools or organizations that work with young people are welcome to participate in our free program – learn more and access our resources on our website: https://directingchangeca.org/. If you are interested in helping us review and score the films we receive from youth, we are always recruiting judges. Judging is done completely online and takes about two hours each spring. You can sign up to be a judge here: https://directingchangeca.org/judging-application/."