What makes a hero? Brainpickings explored this in a recent issue that quoted Walter Lippman, journalist and essayist, who said heroes were people “who pit themselves not against their fellow beings but against the immensity and the violence of the natural world, who are brave without cruelty to others and impassioned with an idea that dignifies all who contemplate it.”
Today, I introduce you to one of the 10,753 heroes who are part of ACEsConnection — Leisa Irwin. She’s our new community editor for ACEs in Education. She joins Cissy White, who is community editor for Parenting with ACEs. (In the next few months, we’ll be adding more community editors for the interest-based groups we’re restructuring on ACEsConnection.com, including ACEs in Juvenile Justice, ACEs in Foster Care, and ACEs in Child Care. Check out the other interest-based groups, too, and if you’re interested in becoming a community editor, send me a message.)
Leisa’s been a member of ACEsConnection for three years. You may be familiar with some of her fascinating articles: It wasn’t part of my plan, but now it’s my life’s work and The truth about trauma and the impact of terror, and how I learned resilience.
While she was CEO of Paladin Technical and Career High School from 2011 to June 2016, she turned it into a trauma-informed school, and integrated some programs and methods that can be useful for other schools. She developed a risk analysis survey based on the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study and Minnesota’s ACE survey and used it to tailor the way the students at Paladin learned. She took into consideration that most students never had help with their homework, had little support to attend school, and were never taught by their caregivers how to plan and manage even the most basic of projects, all of which many schools take for granted and therefore don’t adjust their teaching to. She trained the school staff on ACEs, and implemented school-wide reform to incorporate trauma-informed practices to build resiliency in youth, including a restorative justice behavior management model, supportive services, project-based learning, and student-created initiatives to improve student "voice and choice." She also understood that Paladin’s students faced other challenges that many students don’t, and set up a homeless prevention program, clothes closet, food shelf, emergency assistance fund, legal support program and care coordination (physical and mental health) within the school. She set up a data system to analyze and monitor student issues, interventions, and results.
Leisa’s been an innovator for years. Among other organizations, she was a founding board member of Arcadia Charter School, a project-based charter school for students in grades 6-12, and has assisted other schools with their startup process. She also founded Irwin and Associates, which provided business management and CFO services to Minnesota charter schools and nonprofit organizations; and the Northfield Ballroom Dance Club, the first youth competitive ballroom dance team in Minnesota (yep, she’s a ballroom dancer!).
She’s taking a break from charter schools for a while, and we’re very lucky that she’s volunteering a few hours a week to being community editor for ACEs in Education to make it the go-to place for trauma-informed schools. Writing, talking with other educators about ACEs, and hosting text chats is fun and relaxing, she says! In case you haven’t seen them, she’s posted a couple of blogs already about how to set up a trauma-informed school: Is your school ready to be trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive? and Setting the wheels in motion — becoming a trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive school.
If anyone has any questions about trauma-informed schools, you can post them on ACEs in Education and the main network in the Ask the Community section, or message Leisa. And if you’re working in a trauma-informed school, please join ACEs in Education where you can post about your experiences and/or leave comments. We want to hear from you!
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