trauma responsive & healing centered - InVESTING
Professional Development > Learning Paths > School Mental Health Readiness
This playlist guides schools in embedding trauma-responsive practices into long-term systems and structures. At this stage, there is a strong emphasis on sustaining staff well-being, nurturing leadership, and cultivating a culture of continuous growth. Self-awareness evolves into a collective responsibility, where schools center shared values, deepen relational trust, and pursue equitable change through intentional collaboration and systemic integration.
These resources are focused on self-awareness. Schools who have already done a substantial amount of work on this topic, including collective learning, reflection and professional development, can look to these resources to solidify the work and to maintain buy-in from staff and administration.
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.
- 30 minutes
Based on existing research and best practices, the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships is designed to support the development of family engagement strategies, policies, and programs. It is not a blueprint for engagement initiatives, which must be designed to fit the particular contexts in which they are carried out. Instead, the Framework should be seen as a compass, laying out the goals and conditions necessary to chart a path toward effective family engagement efforts that are linked to student achievement and school improvement. Read more about it in this article from Harvard and watch a short video to learn how leaders can use family engagement plans in their schools and districts.
A Family Engagement Framework for All | Harvard Graduate School of Education
- 10 minutes
This field guide gives guidance on responding to disaster or terrorism events using the Psychological First Aid intervention. This evidence-informed approach helps to assist children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of disaster and terrorism. The manual includes in-depth information about each of the eight core actions and accompanying handouts for adults, adolescents, parents and caregivers, and providers.
- 60 mins
- 15 mins
By understanding the warning signs of burnout, promoting collaboration and collective efficacy, and upholding a work culture that destigmatizes teacher health challenges, districts can promote a positive school climate and increase staff retention. This article describes how to identify teacher burnout and promote collective school staff well-being to increase professional retention and student achievement.
While the term ‘trauma-informed care’ is important, it is incomplete,” says Dr. Shawn Ginwright. One of its shortcomings is that it leads people to think of trauma as only an individual experience instead of thinking about it in terms of systems or contexts. Ginwright explains how we need to have a broader perspective of how the environment – where young people live and play – can be traumatizing, This article describes 5 parts of healing centered engagement:
- culture
- agency
- relationships
- meaning
- aspirations
5 Strategies for developing a school-wide culture of healing | KQED
- 8 mins
- Adapting and Implementing a School-Based Resilience-Building Curriculum Among Low Income and Ethinic Minority Students (research article)
Although youth are at risk for exposure to adversity and trauma, many youth, especially ethnic and racial minorities, do not have access to mental health care. Resilience-building curriculums can teach important internal resilience skills and provide support to students who may not receive prevention or treatment services. The researchers adapted a resilience curriculum initially used for military-connected youth facing adversities related to parental wartime deployments, to meet the needs of low-income, predominantly racial and ethnic minority students in a large urban school district. This article describes the cultural adaptation, the implementation process, and the evaluation of the trauma-informed resilience curriculum using pre-post surveys and focus group discussions.
- 20 minutes