Whole School Safety Planning

Re-framing and Understanding Staff Resistance to Advance Positive School Climate

This guide examines some common root causes of staff resistance, such as burnout, a lack of trust, and fear. It offers actionable strategies for leaders to mitigate the effects of resistance by encouraging them to recognize such resistance as a source of vital information that productively illuminates important gaps or opportunities in initiative implementation. By reframing their approach as one of openness and curiosity, leaders can create favorable conditions for school staff to support the school climate initiative. Questions throughout the guide provide opportunities for leaders to reflect on the best staff engagement approaches.

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We Need Trauma Informed Work Places

The past several years have been incredibly turbulent, as we’ve faced Covid, racial violence, political upheaval, environmental disasters, war, and more. Anxiety and depression have skyrocketed. Organizations have had to confront issues they never expected and find new ways to support their employees through repeated traumatic experiences. The reality, though, is that trauma is not new in our organizations. It’s not going away, either. Estimates are that six in 10 men and five in 10 women experience at least one trauma, and approximately 6% of the population will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. As we’ve seen the lines between work and home blur and a fundamental shift in our expectations of the places we work, organizations have struggled to provide the support and leadership their employees need. That’s why it’s so important to take steps now to build the cultures that can see them through current and future crises. To do that, we need to build trauma-informed organizations.

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Welcoming Schools for LGBTQ Students

HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is a comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program that provides LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals. In addition to working with individual schools, the Welcoming Schools team works with districts to increase the internal capacity for districts to improve school climate by training facilitators within the district to deliver Welcoming Schools content to district educators.

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Welcoming Schools

One of the best ways to welcome students and families into your school community is to integrate high-quality texts into your classroom and school libraries. Welcoming Schools offers recommendations for diverse books for schools, libraries and home. Find books that reflect the rich diversity of people in your school and the world.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Use the resources on this website and short video in staff and family presentations to share information on how students’ need for safety and belonging is vital in their success in school.

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