Is anyone aware of any initiatives in Texas related to Trauma Informed Care? Especially in public schools?
thanks,
Emily Parks, LMSW
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I provided a one day training for my schools in the area to start the dialogue. This forum has a lot of research, videos, power points & discussions to get us going!
Trauma Informed Care has been mandated education for those multidisciplinary persons working with children in protective custody, foster parent/homes/residential settings, and juvenile detention centers. It will require parent advocacy to get it in public schools in Texas. I offer to speak to PTA's about Toxic Stress and children then weaved in Trauma Informed Care
Trauma Sensitive Schools is a perfect fit for positive school climate and/or school improvement. I offer this training right along with the building assets/resilience from the search instute, love and logic strategies and temperament styles workshops to get the buy in from adults!
By the way I will be speaking in El Paso i think on may 14th.
I recently received a post from my publisher that over 750 copies of my book on supporting and educating traumatized students were distributed to schools in Texas. I think mostly in the El Paso area. They were bought through
National Education Systems
So somebody must be doing something
If I'm repeating information, please forgive me, but have you checked out the Child Trauma Academy in Houston? http://childtrauma.org/ I just attended a conference in Boston focused on problem solving, trauma, children---geared towards clinicians, families, and educators---- speakers/presenters Bruce Perry of Child Trauma Academy and also Stuart Ablon of Think Kids http://www.thinkkids.org/ .
I was able to provide a very short presentation on Trauma and Learning for my campus. It is a start, but in Texas if it's not on the Test it is not easy to start a movement of any kind. I have also requested to attend a Trauma Informed Schools Conference and I keep hitting road blocks. It is very sad that the Texas Education Agency and Texas Public Schools do not recognize the need for change in this area or recognize the affects of mental health issues on student learning. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.