Trauma-informed schools have been around for nearly a decade. Boston schools, for example, are considered a national model. In 2014, Massachusetts lawmakers passed comprehensive “safe and supportive schools” provisions to address trauma among public school students.
In the past year, the concept has gained remarkable traction in the St. Louis region, in part because of a regional health initiative called Alive and Well STL. It was launched in the summer of 2015 just a few months before the Ferguson Commission called on the region to address toxic stress and trauma in children as a way to tackle inequity.
Alive and Well STL was created by the St. Louis Regional Health Commission to combat the vast health and life expectancy discrepancies among some of the region’s poorest and wealthiest ZIP codes.
Alive and Well STL intended to bring awareness and solutions regarding trauma and toxic stress to the region. In that early work, officials acknowledge that they didn’t plan on dealing with schools. But then, schools began calling.
The initiative clearly was influencing teachers, school counselors and administrators, said Jerry Cox, a psychotherapist who has been working on the issue with schools in St. Charles County. Many realized that their students’ outbursts, fidgeting, learning issues, absenteeism and even shyness were deeply tied to trauma, he said.
To read more of Nancy Cambria's article, please click here.
Comments (0)