Trauma-Sensitive Schools - Responding to COVID-19 (Free Expert Panel Webinar)

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, many schools are closing for weeks or longer and we know that students, parents and communities are in need of informed and inspiring support. Given the urgency of the real issues at hand, our webinar this Thursday will focus on how we can better care for our families and school communities in the coming weeks.



Our webinar presenters are working directly with students, parents, teachers and schools to smooth this transition and offer effective trauma-informed responses.  In this week’s webinar, they’ll address:

• Trauma-sensitive practices that can address the fear, confusion, and questions of our children, while offering compassion and kindness.
• How to prepare for traumatized children when they return to re-opened schools
• The mental-emotional challenges of life-threatening personal illness and illness of loved ones
• Issues related to equity for districts considering moving to distance learning
• How our family, community and societal immune system is boosted and sustained by partnership systems

Mary Crnobori, coordinator of Trauma-Informed Schools for the 169-school Metro Nashville Public School District, will share how she is working at the district level to raise awareness of childhood and intergenerational trauma, using a collective impact framework to promote system-wide change and implementation of school-wide trauma-sensitive practices, and collaborate with police and other community agencies to support students experiencing traumatic events. Watch Mary Crnobori at TEDx Vanderbilt University: Why All Schools Should be Trauma Informed.

Khayree Bey, 2019 SHAPE Delaware’s Health Teacher of the Year, will share how he is implementing an equity-based trauma-informed approach in his classroom based on the art of mindfulness, Kemetic yoga and other self-care practices, and how he is teaching other teachers, community and staff to do the same. Khayree serves on Colonial School District’s Educators of Color committee which focuses on equity and the underrepresented population in teaching by recruiting, assisting, and maintaining educators of color. Watch Khayree Bey on Colonial School District’s October edition of “Keeping up with Colonial”.

Riane Eisler, founder of the Center for Partnership Studies and author of Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, will explain how the implementation of trauma-sensitive practices in schools is an essential lever for the systemic cultural shift away from relationships of domination and toward relations of partnership. Riane Eisler is an internationally known as a systems scientist and attorney pioneering the human rights of women and children. Learn more about Riane Eisler’s work.