Trauma-Responsive Schools Designation Pilot
CCR launched the first phase of its Trauma-Responsive Schools Designation pilot in early 2020. This pilot program supported 30 elementary and high schools in urban, suburban and rural communities within Illinois in a process to become more trauma responsive through professional development, collaborative trauma-responsive schools needs assessment, data driven action planning, and coaching on best practice implementation. Participating school teams received different levels of consultation to determine the optimal implementation support for school success and scalability statewide. The most effective and efficient model for supporting schools to be more trauma-responsive will be used to inform future work in Illinois and across the country.
Chicago Public Schools Trauma-Responsive Schools
In 2019, CCR entered into a partnership with Chicago Public Schools to support schools in neighborhoods with high levels of individual, community, historical and racial trauma in the development of trauma responsive policies, procedures and practices. Through this program, eight schools received training and coaching on the nature and impact of childhood trauma, the intersection of trauma, racism and inequity and bullying as a form of trauma. Schools also received training in a tool for self-assessment of trauma-informed policies and practices and the key components of a trauma-focused action plan. Data collected prior to the start and immediately following the programming showed significant improvement among schools’ trauma-responsive policies, procedures and practices. Specifically, schools showed improvement in the areas of whole school safety, whole school prevention planning, and whole-school trauma programming. Schools experienced the greatest growth in staff self-care. These positive findings encourage and support the importance of professional learning, assessment, data-informed action planning and communities of practice in schools’ advancing trauma-responsive practices.
In 2020, an additional nine schools were selected to participate in the program. This new cohort has been able to benefit from trainings and CCR’s recently developed virtual learning platform. The short-term training and consultation facilitated an efficient and focused effort that supported these nine schools in significantly improving their trauma responsive policies and practices. This programming has been instrumental in informing the scaling of this training and consultation model across the Illinois and the broader country.