Having one or more Adverse Childhood Experiences increase the rate of developing heart disease, stroke, sexually transmitted diseases, and other negative health outcomes. Wayne County ranks 83 out of 83 counties in Michigan for excessively high, poor health outcomes (RWJF, 2018). Contributing to these numbers is a community that perpetuates trauma through a lack of resilience and health suffers. The funds will be utilized to bring together community partners in curriculum development that integrates resilience factors in schools across the county:
- Yoga classes offered at school to provide opportunities to relieve stress in a healthy, active way.
- Twice a week schools will provide a nutritional, after-school dinner option for students that could use the additional meal options. By partnering with local food banks and farmers markets we will be able to provide free meals.
- Once a month there will be a police-youth dialogue in each school to build trust and understanding between them. This will allow youth to see police officers as a resource in their community that can be accessed and trusted.
- Once a month a new community organization will come into the schools and present on what services they provide to people and how to access them. These partners will range from community centers, food banks, abuse shelters, etc. This will allow youth to get acquainted with their community and identify resources and opportunities for engagement.
Children, schools, and community organization will benefit from this program because it will address the individual, interpersonal, and organizational, and community levels of the Social Ecological Model (SEM). By targeting this intervention at multiple levels, we strengthen our chances of making a lasting impact on our desired outcomes. Our program is dedicated to incorporating as many trauma-informed principles as possible. Safety is our primary concern and fortunately, we are utilizing existing school infrastructures to implement our many interventions for students. All of our activities are promoting safe activities that reduce stress and encourage restorative approaches to everything we do.
We are encouraging trustworthiness and transparency as we engage the students directly in community collaboration, communication, and education. Our ongoing evaluation will elicit feedback from students on process improvements throughout the program and they will see a responsive shift in intervention activities should the data recommend another approach (SAMHSA, 2014). This will indicate students their voice does matter.
Peer support and mutual self-help are built into all activities by highlighting those with lived experience (organizations and people from the community coming to speak), encouraging relationship building, and providing spaces for students to be reflective on their own experience (SAMHSA, 2014).
Community collaboration is fundamental to the engagement activities that are provided to students, and we also set aside funding to train organizational staff on trauma-informed approaches so there are multiple venues for students to achieve collaboration and mutuality (SAMHSA, 2014).
Resources:
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2018). County Health Rankings & Roadmaps: Michigan. Retrieved from: http://www.countyhealthranking...mes/overall/snapshot (Links to an external site.)SAMHSA’s Trauma and Justice Strategic Initiative. (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach (Rep.). Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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