Hank Bohanon

I help school staff create more effective school environments for their students.

Why Building Community Resilience Is Critical to Trauma-Informed Approaches

by Leave a Comment

Image from Flickr Creative Commons

There is a great deal of concern for addressing trauma for students during our current COVID-19 realities. These concerns are particularly true for students of color.

The good news is there are ways to help communities build their trauma-informed approaches.

In this presentation at the 25th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health, sponsored by the National Center for School Mental Health, Michael Kelly (Loyola University of Chicago), JoAnne Malloy, and I talked about:

  • Providing trauma-informed care through a racial equity lens (Michael Kelly)
  • Solutions to trauma as schools deal with COVID-19 and structural racism (Michael Kelly) (0:00-25:00 minutes)
  • Building resilience through RENEW (Resilience for Empowerment, Natural Supports, Education and Work) intervention (JoAnne Malloy) (25:00-45:00)
  • Creating conditions for buy-in and implementation of trauma-informed care (Hank Bohanon) (45:00-58:00)
Link to Presentation Video

Additionally, here are some possible reflection questions if you need to use this video as a part of professional development activity.

  1. What are six components of trauma-informed care (TIC)?
  2. What are some of the concerns about the implementation of TIC?
  3. How do the principles of equity literacy connect to TIC?
  4. Describe how the host environment impacts a school staff’s ability to provide effective intensive supports.
  5. What was your reaction to Traiq’s video/story about his school-to-prison experience?
  6. What is one way that helping students develop a plan for their future can help them become more successful in school and life?
  7. Identify a systems component that can support the implementation of TIC.
  8. What kinds of individuals do you need to support effective teams for implementing TIC.

Also, my friends and colleagues Bridget Walker and Lori Lynass at Sounds Supports (an MTSS related training network) just created several online courses related to implementing supports such as MTSS and trauma-informed care in virtual settings (link). I think their content will be very useful to schools, districts, and staff. Disclaimer – I don’t receive any financial support for sharing these courses, I am sharing them because I trust their content to help my readers.

Also, here is a wonderful blog titled, Looking for Strong Tier 3? We Have to Start with Tier 1, by my friend Lorna Hepburn. Lorna directs positive behavior learning for the State of Queensland in Australia. Her post helps the reader understand why providing effective school-wide interventions is so crucial to developing intensive supports.

I hope these resources might be useful for your work around providing trauma-informed care for your students and staff. I would love to know your thoughts about these resources. Please feel free to leave a comment below.