PROJECTS
PROJECTS
Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) works intentionally with partner organizations to understand their specific needs and goals to develop a partnership project plan that includes input and expertise from all parties to ensure that plans are positioned for success. Following are a sampling of our projects.
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National CEnter for Safe and Supportive schools
Building Safe and Supportive Schools through Culturally Responsive, Multi-tiered Programming
In collaboration with the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, CCR is part of a $3 million federal grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to expand trauma-informed policies and practices in school communities nationwide. This five-year initiative establishes the National Center for Safe and Supportive Schools (NCS3) as part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. NCS3 focuses on culturally responsive, multi-tiered programming to build state and school district capacity, training and implementation of school-based trauma interventions, and pre-service educator and mental health provider preparation.
As an NCS3 partner, CCR works collaboratively to address existing gaps in the widespread implementation of trauma-informed schools (TIS). In October 2020, CCR co-facilitated three Tier II trauma interventions (CBITS, Bounce Back, STRONG) at the Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health for 24 school teams nationwide. Districts will be able to apply to participate in a national learning collaborative to learn about safe supportive schools beginning in Spring 2021.
To Learn more about our Ncs3 work visit www.ncs3.org
Trauma-Informed early childhood classrooms and settings
Setting Children Up for Success: Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Classrooms and Settings
Young children comprise the largest population of youth vulnerable to traumatic experience with up to 50% of children between the ages of 2 and 5 years having experienced one or more types of serious childhood trauma. These traumas include domestic violence, having a serious illness or hospitalization, death of someone close, separation from a caregiver, divorce and witnessing community violence. Early exposure to traumatic stress puts these young children at increased risk for behavioral health disorders like depression, anxiety and aggression and can interfere with school functioning leading to poor academic outcomes.
Trauma-Responsive, Healing centered Schools
Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing Pilot Project
In late 2020, CCR launched the Illinois State Board of Education Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing Pilot Project (ISBE REACH). This pilot expansion features access to CCR’s virtual learning platform which provides educators with free, on-demand asynchronous training on trauma-informed and healing centered practices. Within the first 90 days of launching, over 4,500 educators throughout Illinois signed up to access training modules on this platform. The ISBE REACH resources address the impact of trauma on children and adolescents, the intersection between race and trauma, crisis response strategies, and schoolwide trauma-responsive policies and classroom practices to build resilience among students. These virtual trainings support educators’ personal and professional well-being and self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Beginning in 2021, our first cohort of 20 schools will create school-community REACH Wellness teams. These cohorts consist of 21st Century grantees and are functioning in the lower 10% of schools across the state. Through a combination of asynchronous training provided via the REACH virtual learning platform as well as professional development, consultation, and coaching, schools will engage in needs assessment and create school-specific action plans to advance trauma-informed practices and monitor progress over time.
LEARN ABOUT OUR OTHER TRAUMA-RESPONSIVE SCHOOLS PROJECTS HERE ...
Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescent Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS)
The Center for Childhood Resilience has partnered with the Chicago Public Schools for a study to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of a school-based intervention for students exposed to trauma (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescent Responding to Chronic Stress; SPARCS). SPARCS is a group intervention designed to address the needs of chronically traumatized adolescents who may still be living with ongoing stress and experiencing problems in several areas of functioning. This work piloted the SPARCS intervention to Options school students through collaboration between school and community-based clinicians. The study concluded August 2021. SPARCS intervention continues to be implemented in Chicago Public Schools and other districts nationwide. CPS has already begun to offer the SPARCS intervention in a few alternative schools; however, there has been no research to date on whether this model is feasible, acceptable, and effective in this setting. Therefore, our team is partnering with school-based staff to implement and evaluate this intervention.
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Bounce back replication study
Bounce Back is a school-based intervention aimed at elementary school students exposed to traumatic events. In collaboration with Loyola University Chicago and Cicero School District #99, CCR utilized a randomized control design to replicate findings from the original Bounce Back efficacy study (Langley et al., 2015) in a different geographical area. Results indicated that Bounce Back is an effective intervention that can feasibly be implemented by school based clinicians with a low-income, predominantly Latino sample of elementary school students experiencing high levels of trauma and other ongoing stressor. Symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress were reduced and coping skills improved as a result of this intervention. The study concluded June 2016.
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Evaluating the Implementation of Bounce Back in Schools
Bounce Back is a school-based intervention aimed at elementary school students exposed to traumatic events. In collaboration with Loyola University Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, an initial group of school- and community-employed clinicians participated in focus groups to provide feedback on factors that promoted effective implementation of the intervention. The study concluded June 2017. Bounce Back intervention continues to be implemented in Chicago Public Schools and other districts nationwide.
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Working on Womanhood (W.O.W.)
Becoming an evidence-based intervention
WOW is a community-developed, multi-faceted school year long group counseling and mentoring program that works to improve social-emotional competencies for girls in the 7th to 12th grades who have been exposed to traumatic stressors in high-risk and under-resourced communities. Through community-academic partnership, the CCR collaborated with WOW program leadership on a participatory formative evaluation of program feasibility, acceptability, and initial promise in preparation for a formal effectiveness study. The study concluded June 2016. Findings were favorable surrounding the initial promise of a thriving and popular school-based behavioral health intervention, but also identified multiple areas for potential improvement in feasibility and acceptability and informed ongoing program modification.
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