Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH)
If you are interested in becoming a REACH school, please review the information below. By completing the participation form at the end of this page, you acknowledge your intent to participate in the REACH Statewide Initiative.
The goal of the Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) Statewide Initiative is to support schools in establishing systems of support to better address student mental health and resilience via trauma-responsive and healing-centered policies and practices.
By participating in this initiative, schools will gain a better understanding of the core domains of a trauma- responsive school through professional development and assess their own strengths and weaknesses in these areas. Also, schools will develop data-driven action plans to address school-level policies, procedures and practices to advance staff awareness of trauma and its impact and school-wide implementation of interventions and practices that can prevent re-traumatization and promote healing. REACH will support schools in implementation of these action plans and monitoring their progress.
BENEFITS FOR PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
Throughout this REACH Statewide Initiative, participating schools will benefit in the following ways:
1. Virtual Learning Community:
Your REACH School Team will have full access to the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) REACH Learning and Resource Hub (RLRH). The RLRH features a series of on-demand recorded trainings and resources to prepare educators and community partners to better support student mental health and resilience via trauma-responsive and healing-centered practices, while fostering their own personal and professional resilience and self-care skills. Training topics include the following:
Introduction to Trauma
Trauma, Racism & Equity
Trauma Responsive Schools Implementation Assessment
Data-Driven Action Planning
2. ISBE Licensure Clock Hours and Continuing Education Units:
Through our Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (CCR) partnership, Illinois educators who complete the virtual, on-demand trainings will have the opportunity to receive ISBE licensure clock hours. Also, licensed school social workers and psychologists who complete the recorded trainings can earn continuing education credits (CEUs).
3. Trauma-Responsive Schools-Implementation Assessment (TRS-IA):
Your school will learn about a national tool designed to support schools in assessing their current trauma-responsive practices. Your school will be supported in convening a REACH Team that will engage in a consensus building process to complete the TRS-IA; this instrument provides valuable information and guidance for creating a trauma responsive action plan.
4. REACH Community of Practice:
Your school can choose to be part of a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) to share ideas, challenges, and successes and engage in meaningful collaboration around action plan implementation. CoP facilitators guide their CoP members to identify ways to make progress on goals included in their school’s REACH action plan and translate knowledge and insights gained through CoP participation to a school-based application.
REQUIREMENTS OF PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
1. Convene REACH School Team
Identify and convene REACH School team members. Provide names, roles and contact information of REACH team members to your SEL/ ROE Hub. Names, roles, and contact information of REACH team members will be shared with the REACH evaluation team at CCR and American Institutes of Research (AIR) for the purposes of tracking participation in REACH. REACH Team members may be invited to complete voluntary surveys or focus groups to provide input on their experiences with REACH. The specific roles of identified team members are:
School Administrator (Principal, AP)
Student Services/Mental Health Lead (Dean, Counselor, Social Worker or Psychologist or School’s Community Mental Health Partner Lead)
Community Partner
Teacher Lead
Caregiver/Family Representative
2. Participate in the Online Learning Modules and Live PLCs hosted by your SEL/ ROE Hub
The REACH School team will complete 1 or 3 online learning modules depending on their role.
District and school leads will attend 2 live PLCs hosted by their SEL/ ROE Hub
Live PLCs may be recorded for the purposes of training and quality improvement.
3. Complete Trauma Responsive Schools-Implementation Assessment (TRS-IA)
Complete the TRS-IA individually (each REACH School team member)
Hold REACH school team meeting to review and achieve consensus on school TRS-IA ratings
Enter the REACH Team TRS-IA consensus scores into the School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System data platform.
4. Develop a Trauma-Responsive Schools Action Plan
Convene REACH school team to develop a data-driven action plan based on TRS-IA scores and other relevant data.
If you have any questions, please contact REACH@luriechildrens.org.
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The Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) Statewide Initiative is supported by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER II) from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. For more information, please visit oese.ed.gov. Additional support has been provided by Grand Victoria Foundation and other philanthropic partners.