Blog

There are many ways to become Trauma Informed, but the most efficient and effective way is to do your own self exploration and then understand your students.

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” -Desmond Tutu. This quote captures the essence of why resilience matters. To Community Resilience Initiative, Resilience is not about “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” or “bouncing back” from serious harm or injury. To us, Resilience is about self-discovery and self-awareness based on what the ACE Study, neurobiology, and epigenetics tell us...

When I joined the Franklin Pierce Early Learning Center a year ago, I was immediately struck by the positive and hopeful atmosphere. I would quickly learn that the school is a Kids at Hope school - believing and practicing that "All Children are Capable of Success, No Exceptions!" Adults at a Kids at Hope school are Treasure Hunters - seeking out the strengths of both the children and adults in the building, as well as within themselves. I soon was connected with Wally Endicott as I prepared...

By Yuxuan Xie a nd Daniel J. Willis , EdSource.org View EdSource's interactive map showing the chronic absenteeism rates for school districts across California. The highest rates are clustered in rural areas. To see the interactive map, go to: https://edsource.org/2019/interactive-map-californias-chronically-absent-students-in-2017-18/613074 And here is an accompanying video: Take a journey into rural Butte County, California where districts are confronting high rates of students missing...

J ennifer Lunzer never felt like she fit in at school. "Art was my safe place where I was good at something and did not have to feel embarrassed about my work," says Lunzer, who has dyslexia. "And growing up dyslexic, no one told me to set my sights high." Now as an artist and also the owner of a successful small business, Josefine's Salon Concepts, Lunzer has incorporated her experiences to create Fitting Together Ar t. The concept is to design an art project in which children, regardless...

HERE this NOW is proud to bring its Trauma-Responsive Schools Conference to California, October 23 – 25, 2019, at the stunning Temecula Creek Inn in Temecula, CA (2 hours north of San Diego; 3-hours south of Los Angeles). This is not a typical conference. Participants will be actively engaged in an immersive experience, rendering more growth - personal and professional. Five diversely skilled and experienced pioneers of trauma-informed schools change are coming together for first time, to...

By Nessia Berner Wong, ChangeLab Solutions. Jaidyn Probst is a high school senior living in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Redwood Falls is a small, rural town of about 5,000 people — small enough that, according to Jaidyn, everyone knows everyone, which is probably her favorite part. She enjoys creating art, reading, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family. Also, she really doesn’t like doing the dishes. Jaidyn is Bdewakantunwan (Spirit Lake Dwellers) Dakota and comes from...

By Jenny Abamu and Rob Manning, NPR, June 5, 2019. Every time Jennifer Tidd's son was secluded or restrained at school, she received a letter from his teachers. Her son has autism and behavioral issues, and over three years — from 2013 to 2016 — Tidd got 437 of those letters. "I see this pile of documents that's 5 inches tall that represents hundreds of hours of being locked into a room, and I feel, you know, horrible," Tidd says. She's sitting in her living room in Northern Virginia, her...

By Nessia Berner Wong, ChangeLab Solutions. Jaidyn Probst is a high school senior living in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Redwood Falls is a small, rural town of about 5,000 people — small enough that, according to Jaidyn, everyone knows everyone, which is probably her favorite part. She enjoys creating art, reading, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family. Also, she really doesn’t like doing the dishes. Jaidyn is Bdewakantunwan (Spirit Lake Dwellers) Dakota and comes from...

If only there were a program that could help struggling students earn their high school diploma, an educational recovery intervention that helps students graduate and progress to productive careers or advanced education. Guess what? There is. It’s called Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) , and across a 40-year history, it's proven to be the country's most effective drop-out prevention program . JAG has served more than 1.2 million students and currently operates in 35 states, annually...

I will always remember the day that, as a student teacher, I watched as a student entered my second-grade room covered in blood. After quickly establishing that he was not injured, we learned that the blood was that of his brother who had been shot the night before. No parents were around that night, so this second grader became the sole caregiver of his bleeding brother. My student would never be the same. We didn’t care about grades or test scores. We just knew that this moment would...

There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...