Family & Community Partnership

Student Well-Being Survey

August 5, 2024

Measure and Understand Student Well-Being With a Research-Backed Instrument: Sometimes referred to as “youth positive development” or as “indicators of thriving,” student well-being is a predictor of outcomes including educational achievement, mental health, economic prosperity, and relationship success. By asking students to reflect on their well-being through surveys, schools and districts can gather actionable data to better support students socially and emotionally. Measuring well-being can contribute to a “whole child” educational approach, signal to students and their families the importance of mental health, help focus limited counseling resources on at-risk students, and inform a community-wide response to the trauma of student suicide.

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Starting a Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at your school

August 5, 2024

LGBTQ+ student-led clubs and GSAs (Gender and Sexuality Alliances) create safe, inclusive schools and serve as powerful agents of change by providing spaces for organization, support, and community. The resources guide starting a GSA, fostering inclusivity for trans youth, and participating in events like the Day of Silence, Solidarity Week, and GLSEN’s Changing the Game.

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Scholar Story: Nia Heard-Garris

August 5, 2024

In the video, Dr. Nia Heard-Garris explains how media exposure to racism negatively impacts health by causing stress and trauma, especially through vicarious racism, which is when children witness or hear about racist incidents rather than experiencing them directly.

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Safe Space Toolkit

August 5, 2024

Guide provides strategies to support LGBTQ students, educate about anti-LGBTQ bias, advocate for changes in your school. The kit guides making an assessment of school’s climate, policies and practices.

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Resources on Personal Pronouns

August 5, 2024

This website provides information about why pronouns matter in a straight forward way. Access the resources provided to use in student, staff, and family learning events, newsletter, or link to their page in your email signature and share this information and your support of LLBTQ+ communities.

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Reclaim Social-Emotional Learning: Centering Organizing Praxis for Holistically Safe Schools Report

August 5, 2024

In 2020 Communities for Just Schools Fund worked with national network of partners (youth, parent, and teacher-led organizing groups) to press back on harmful narratives about safety — and to instead place conversations about safety into the more holistic, appropriate container of culturally-affirming social-emotional learning (SEL). Through the year-long Community of Practice, they collected survey data from partners about their work related to safety and SEL. The findings from this year-long exploration of culturally-affirming SEL are detailed in this report.

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Reimagine Justice Illinois

August 5, 2024

Organization within Illinois that provides advocacy, professional development, needs assessment, action planning and implementation to communties and organizations wanting to develop adult social and emotional leanring, restorative practices, clutire and climate work in schools, bullying prevention, and healing-centered work.

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Practical Guide to Advance Community School Strategies for Youth Voice and Leadership

August 5, 2024

IEL partners with communities, working with local entities to fill service needs and support them in the long-term on their transformational leadership journey. This guide serves to support Community School practitioners to better understand and create opportunities for youth leadership in their schools and communities.

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Praxis Institute

August 5, 2024

Praxis integrates theory and practice for healing-centered, transformative solutions, collaborating with partners across the ecosystems of government, schools, academia, community organizations, and philanthropy. Their approach fosters connection, compassion, and continuous improvement. Prxis’ team consists of educators, therapists, artists, coaches, counselors, activists, evaluators, researchers, and not -for-rofit leaders. The provide coaching to schools, facilitate Communities of Practice, and offer, CoPs, workshops around healing-centered engagement.

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Principles of an Anti-Racist, Trauma-Informed Organization

August 5, 2024

This guide offers actionable principles that organizations and child-serving systems can implement to move toward the fundamental transformation of becoming anti-racist and trauma-informed. This list of principles is a companion document to the Being Anti-Racist is Central to Trauma- Informed Care: Principles of an Anti-Racist, Trauma-Informed Organization resource, which includes further explanation and strategies for how organizations can put these principles into action.

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