Staff Well-being

You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup: Culture of Care for Schools – Document

April 1, 2026

Taking care of yourself is vital. It can be challenging to prioritize time for yourself when there are so many other people and things to take care of in life. But focusing on others, whether it’s family, students or friends, is difficult if you haven’t already taken care of your needs. This short course helps increase your understanding of the definitions of commonly used self-care terms; increase your knowledge about the ABCs of self-care; introduces the concepts of collective care and healing centered environments.

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Emotional Wellness Toolkit

April 1, 2026

How you feel can affect your ability to carry out everyday activities, your relationships, and your overall mental health. How you react to your experiences and feelings can change over time. Emotional wellness is the ability to successfully handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times. On this website flip the cards for checklists on how to improve your health in each area, such as sleep and reducing stress. Click on the images to read articles about each topic. You can also print the checklists separately or all together to share with others or as a reminder to yourself.

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Compassion Resilience Toolkit for Schools

July 28, 2025

In efforts to build resilience in our students, this organziation advocates for examining our capacity personally and professionally to model that which we strive to build. This toolkit explores the protective factors that build and maintain compassion resilience. toolkit will explore the protective factors that build and maintain compassion resilience.

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Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois (RSSI)

July 15, 2025

Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois (RSSI) is a free and voluntary support that uses school-specific data to connect educators with evidence-informed tools and resources to improve the mental health and well-being of their school communities.

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What is Going Well?

June 30, 2025

It takes a lot of discipline to remember and to notice what is going well in your life, what is beautiful, and to notice where there is love, where there is grace. Laura van Dernoot Lipsky is Founder and Director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute.

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Wellness Calculator

June 30, 2025

WellSteps created a series of research-based return on investment (ROI) calculators to help estimate the effect of well-designed wellness programs on health care costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism. Each of the three ROI calculators will examine a different employee expense. A well-designed wellness program is one that changes the health behaviors of employees, spouses, and dependents, thus lowering health risks, reducing chronic disease, and helping worksites create a culture of health. The design of the WellSteps wellness solution was based on this body of evidence

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Well-Being Spaces for Teachers and Staff

June 30, 2025

A well-being space (or wellness space, zen den -whatever you choose to call it) provides an area to relax and recharge during the school day. These areas can foster environments that promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being. They can also be a great place to promote staff connection and collaboration. A warm, welcoming well-being space is one way to show hardworking school staff and teachers they’re valued and appreciated, which decreases staff stress, boosts morale, and increases job satisfaction. Healthy and fulfilled school staff can perform at their best, model emotional regulation for students, and have fewer sick days.

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Staff Wellness Presentation Slides

June 30, 2025

Use these slides for presentations to promote the benefits in staff wellness in schools.

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School Employee Wellness Toolkit

June 30, 2025

This quick-start toolkit is provided as a supplement to Healthy School, Healthy Staff, Healthy Students: A Guide to Improving School Employee Wellness, is designed to increase the capacity of district and school staff in addressing school employee wellness, to improve the health of all school employees, and to improve student health and academic outcomes.

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Promoting Mental Health & Well-Being in Schools: An Action Guide for School and District Leaders: Presentation Slides

June 30, 2025

Check out the companion “Getting Started” guide to help with your action planning, designed for school administrators in kindergarten through 12th grade schools (K-12), including principals and leaders of school-based student support teams, to identify evidence-based strategies, approaches, and practices that can positively influence students’ mental health.

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