On April 28, 2017, St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund Executive Director Connie J. Cunningham presented Dr. Norman White with the 2017 Dr. John M. Anderson Excellence in Mental Health Award.
As Dr. White accepted the award at the St. Louis American Salute to Excellence Healthcare Luncheon he addressed the room with a traditional greeting from the Masai tribe, "Kasserian Ingera," which means, "and how are the children?" The expected response is: "All the children are well." Dr. White urged the congregation to start asking that question in their daily interactions and to consider its meaning. He reminded the crowd that the onus is on the community to ensure the response is, "all the children are well."
Dr. White currently leads the
Shut It Down!
program that is working in seven elementary schools in St. Louis Public Schools. The ultimate goal of the program is to decrease students’ interactions with the criminal justice center.
Funded through a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health, the program provides ongoing professional development and training to staff and teachers on inequity, implicit racial bias, and the behavioral health outcomes of childhood trauma. Through
Shut it Down!,
teachers are better equipped to interact with students to prevent behaviors from further escalating into a discipline or court issue.
Since the program’s launch in the fall of 2014, suspensions have decreased, and schools have implemented alternative strategies for effective school discipline that support both the faculty and students.
St. Louis County Children's Service Fund is proud to support the work of so many amazing agencies that help us achieve our mission as we work together so we can collectively answer, "all the children are well."