Getting to the H.E.A.R.T. of the Matter: Lessons Learned by Trauma Informed Specialists Hired in the Midst of a Pandemic

Format

Workshop

First Presenter's Institution

Clarke County Schools

First Presenter’s Email Address

hawksm@clarke.k12.ga.us

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Mary Catherine Hawks has worn many hats including almost a decade supporting children in Georgia’s foster care system. Her eyes are opened to the impact of trauma in work with humans across many sectors. She serves her local school district as a Trauma Informed Specialist. She practices part time as a therapist and is an instructor in trauma conscious yoga, Circle of Security Parenting, and Youth Mental Health First Aid.

Second Presenter's Institution

Clarke County Schools

Second Presenter’s Email Address

hopec@clarke.k12.ga.us

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Caron Hope’s experience spans the last two decades serving predominantly in the local community service board as a licensed professional counselor and as program manager for inpatient treatment. Caron served as assistant director to the University of Georgia’s Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Program for over five years before moving to k12 to serve as Clarke County Schools Trauma Informed Specialist.

Location

Session Eight

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Relevance

Through the HEART model we will explore how we've sprinkled social emotional learning throughout our professional learning with school staff, direct services with students, and school policies such as threat assessment, and safety drills.

We will also explore holistic wellness initiatives that focus on domains of wellness including and beyond physical and mental health. Initiatives including a multi-disciplinary wellness collaborative and trauma conscious movement and mindful practice with staff and students.

Brief Program Description

Explore lessons learned from School Trauma Informed Specialists. Interventions include direct support and system wide practices that serve both students and staff. We will invite participants to reflect through a H.E.A.R.T. framework:

Healing centered work

Elevating the voices of those with lived experience

Accepting when things don’t work

Regulating practices incorporated into all work

Tangible results of programs and policies influenced, impacted, and scrapped.

Summary

In our workshop we will explore lessons learned from starting as Trauma Informed Specialists in the midst of the pandemic. Interventions explored will include direct support and system wide policy and practices that serve both students and staff.

We will invite participants to collectively reflect and share information through the lens of the H.E.A.R.T. framework outlined below.

1. Healing centered work focused on increasing community resilience and well-being in addition to post-trauma intervention.

In this section we will share our system wide work on policy and community prevention. Work explored will include development of a threat assessment policy and safety drill support guide, implementation of Handle with Care, Wellness Spaces and Environmental Checklists, and Forming a District Wide Wellness Collaborative.

2. Elevating the voices of those with lived experience and those impacted by the programs or policy.. Ensuring culturally humble and relevant work.

In this section we explore collaborating across all dimensions with students, staff, and our community partners and families from diverse experiences and backgrounds. Specifically we will share how we elevated the voice of staff through organizational assessments, focus groups, and individual relationships.

3. Accepting when things don’t work, problem solving barriers and understanding that growth takes time.

During this section we will explore our roles in improving mental health service delivery including ways we have supported on a system wide basis to increase access. We will walk through how we identified barriers including limited practitioners, limited meeting spaces, and decreasing stigma. We will share our program deliverables including a collaborative mental health resource list and tele-health service delivery.

4. Regulating practices that cultivate deep breathing and mindful presence incorporated into schools, meetings, and events as much as possible.

During this section we will explore system wide change including implementing mindful movement and breath practices into district events and classrooms.. We will focus on the implementation of this program through providing yoga and meditation classes in a middle school summer camp including a sample lesson plan from these classes

Through exploration of our district's processes, we will build in time for self reflection and hands-on application of trauma informed movement and breathwork utilized with our staff and students.

5. Tangible results of programs and policies influenced, impacted, and scrapped.

The program guiding this section reflection will be our STAR direct support to students. We will explore the delivery outcomes including students served, stakeholder feedback, and provide a sample STAR session lesson outline.

After each HEART element outlined above, we will invite questions and ask participants to share practices connected to the topic that they provide in their school systems and organizations. We will include a QR code to collect these responses from the whole group, allow space for sharing in person, and quiet reflection.. In hopes that we can collect ideas and share out to participants after our session for further exploration and collaboration.

The session will close with a 5 minute regulating activity of breathwork and movement. These activities will be sprinkled throughout the presentation as well to promote optimum attention and critical exploration.

Evidence

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019). Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Leveraging the Best Available Evidence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cook-Cottone, C. P. (2017). Mindfulness and yoga in schools: A guide for teachers and Practitioners. Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Kreitz, Mary (2021, April 29). Positive Childhood Experiences. Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health. https://www.childandadolescent.org/positive-childhood-experiences/

MacNeill, J. (2017). 101 Brain Breaks & Brain based educational activities. calm, focus, energize. Lakeside

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach. SAMHSA Publication No. PEP23-06-05-005. Rockville, MD: National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2023.

Tlalka, Stephany. (2022, March 4) To Use the Breath to Strengthen Your Mind. https://www.mindful.org/use-breath-strengthen-mind/

Trauma-informed yoga for child welfare professionals on Vimeo. (n.d.). https://vimeo.com/showcase/8888123

Venet, A. S. (2021). Equity-centered trauma-informed education. W.W. Norton & Company.

Learning Objective 1

Collaborate and brainstorm around program implementation including sharing programing implemented in our school district.

Learning Objective 2

Engage in self reflection on delivery, lessons learned, and future goals.

Learning Objective 3

Improve self regulation and co-regulation practices in the workshop to be applied in participants' professional and personal lives.

Keyword Descriptors

Regulation, Trauma Informed Care, Movement and Breath, Mental Health, Wellness

Presentation Year

2024

Start Date

3-6-2024 9:15 AM

End Date

3-6-2024 9:45 AM

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Mar 6th, 9:15 AM Mar 6th, 9:45 AM

Getting to the H.E.A.R.T. of the Matter: Lessons Learned by Trauma Informed Specialists Hired in the Midst of a Pandemic

Session Eight

Explore lessons learned from School Trauma Informed Specialists. Interventions include direct support and system wide practices that serve both students and staff. We will invite participants to reflect through a H.E.A.R.T. framework:

Healing centered work

Elevating the voices of those with lived experience

Accepting when things don’t work

Regulating practices incorporated into all work

Tangible results of programs and policies influenced, impacted, and scrapped.