TRS-HC Informing

trauma responsive & healing centered - InFORMING

Professional Development > Learning Paths > School Mental Health Readiness

A trauma-responsive school is one where all students feel safe and supported, and where the school’s educational mission focuses on addressing the impact of trauma on learning. A school or district is healing-centered when it acknowledges its role and responsibility to the community, fully responds to trauma, and promotes resilience and healing through genuine, trusting, and creative relationships.

These resources are focused on self-awareness. Schools who have already initiated this work through collective learning, reflection and professional development will find these resources helpful to build on this knowledge and to keep the momentum going.

The TRS-IA is an evidence-informed self-assessment that comprises eight key domains of trauma-responsive schools and districts. It encompasses 8 domains: 1) whole school prevention planning; 2) whole school safety planning; 3) whole school trauma programming; 4) target trauma-informed programming; 5) prevention/early intervention trauma programming; 6) classroom strategies; 7) staff self-care; 8) family and community engagement.

This course covers information needed to fulfill the mandate created by Illinois Public Act 103-0413, which was signed into law in August 2023. The law creates common definitions around trauma-responsive environments. Starting with the 2024-2025 school year, teacher institutes need to provide instruction on trauma-informed practices and include the definitions of trauma, trauma-responsive learning environments, and whole child.

This virtual Teach-In with Dr. Shawn Ginwright, one of America’s leading innovators, provocateurs, and thought leaders on African American youth, youth activism, and youth development, was a collaboration between YouthREX and the York Research Chair in Youth and Contexts of Inequity. Dr. Ginwright has led the development of the Healing-Centered Engagement model, a strength-based approach that promotes a collective view of healing – an ongoing process that must also focus on restoring and sustaining the practitioners who work with and support youth.

Healing-centered engagement is strength-based, advances a collective view of healing, and re-centers culture as a central feature in well-being.

https://ginwright.medium.com/the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-trauma-informed-care-to-healing-centered-engagement-634f557ce69c

Belonging in the classroom means ensuring that all students feel welcomed, comfortable, and part of the school family. This article provides five strategies that can help ensure that students feel they belong in your classroom.

5 Strategies to Cultivate Belonging in the Classroom | Edutopia

This case study explores one elementary school’s journey to build a Resilience Team within the school community. With all of the challenges facing the families of a town in North Carolina and the greater community at large after a series of natural disasters and other hardships, this school’s principal saw a need for a deeper dive into social emotional learning (SEL) implementation and other supports to expand the overall growth and positive change he wanted to see within the school and the community.

https://resilienceandlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Baskerville-Elementary-School-Case-Study.pdf