Wellbeing Check-In

Introduction

The 2024 - 2025 school year has begun! The Coalition has been hard at work throughout the summer and the busy professional development season in New Orleans. After taking time to reflect and restore in June, our team - including some new staff members - began to establish new partnerships and build upon existing ones. Check out the quarterly update below to meet our new staff members, our advisory board, our school partners for the 24-25 school year, and updates on our programming and research projects.

The Quarterly Update

Welcoming New Staff Members

The Coalition is excited to welcome on board some new staff members! Through our shared grants and work with the New Orleans Youth Alliance and the Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, two new full time staff members - Cia Blackstock and Maggie Lanphere - will support our Trauma-Informed Schools Project.

Additionally, Lila Hochron joins us to support our research on the impact and efficacy of our Training of Trainers Project conducted from 2020 - 2024. 

Please join us in a warm welcome to these incredible staff members who are helping us work towards our vision of a flourishing school system rooted in community, healing, and human-centered approaches.

Introducing Our Advisory Board

To assist with growth and provide insights and expertise into the work, we have welcomed 12 professionals in the field of trauma and education to join our Advisory Board. Earlier this year, our Advisory Board came together at the Dodwell House to meet one another, build relationships, and learn more about the Coalition's goals for the coming year.

The Coalition’s Advisory Board will engage in the development and oversight of grant activities to review performance data and use that data to determine whether Coalition activities are having the intended impact and to suggest adjustments to the project. The Advisory Board will also provide direct support and consultation to partner schools as they are developing action plans for specific trauma-informed programming.

2024 - 2025 School Partnerships

This year launches a new iteration of our work: The Trauma-Informed Schools Project (TISP). This project is derived from our research, evaluation and learning from SafeSchools NOLA, the Trauma-Informed Learning Collaborative, and the Training of Trainers Project.

The Trauma-Informed Schools Project works to build capacity of schools and leadership teams to enhance trauma-informed work in the key areas of Trauma-Informed Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (TI-MTSS), Educator Wellbeing & Trauma Stewardship, Parent & Community Engagement, Youth Engagement, and Enrichment & After School Programming. We are excited to welcome 4 school partners across 2 New Orleans charter management organizations (CMO) into this work this year.

CMO #1:

KIPP New Orleans - KIPP Leadership Primary (K-4) & Academy (5-8)

Take a look at this video highlight of our summer foundational training with the KIPP Leadership Academy Staff to get an idea of what a professional development session with the Coalition looks, sounds, and feels like:

CMO #2:

Community Academies of New Orleans - Foundation Prep Academy & Esperanza Academy

Check out what Community Academies Chief Academic Officer, Nikki Garrison, had to say about what the training and support from the Coalition has meant to their team:

In addition to our Trauma-Informed Schools Project, we are actively engaged in our second year of providing Targeted Implementation Support & Consultation (TISC) to schools as well. Our TISC programming is for schools and school teams that are ready to begin trauma-informed work in the planning & piloting phases of implementation or for sustaining work begun in a prior iteration of our work.

We are excited to have already established 4 partnerships this year, with a few others on the horizon! Please join us in congratulating the following school programs for their commitments to trauma-informed practices in their schools:

Warren Easton Charter High School Pre-Educator Program

Einstein Sherwood Forest

Algiers Charter School Association (Martin Behrman Charter School & L.B. Landry High School)

Edible Schoolyard NOLA (a Firstline Schools Program)

Researchers of Creative Change (ROCC)

Students who participated in the youth participatory action research program Little ROCC’s during the 23-24 school year had the opportunity to attend a research camp with Dr. Jesse Chanin this past summer! During this summer camp, the Little ROCCs engaged in deep and critical discussions around issues of race, gender, stereotypes, discipline, and more in schools. By the end of their time, they developed a presentation to give to school staff members that highlighted the findings of their research for the year.

The Little ROCC students were recently recognized in Tulane news for their summer camp enhancing the research work they did in K-8 schools. Check out the article here!

In August, some of the Little ROCC team was able to present their training to our partners at the Edible Schoolyard (ESY) NOLA. Check out one of the activities they designed and led, using the data from their research, and how the ESYNOLA team responded.

Resource Roundup

As the school year takes off and you are doing walkthroughs for culture and academics, add a trauma-informed component! Our trauma-informed schools walkthrough checklist takes your through the six principles of trauma-informed schools in various settings of the school building. Adding this quick and easy-to-use tool to your practice is a great way to begin your trauma-informed journey!

Check out the tool here and reach out to our Dissemination Coordinator, Anthony Marino if you would like consultation or support in how to use the tool with your team.

Membership Corner

Recognitions

Happy Sweet 16 to the Center for Restorative Approaches!

One of our Advisory Board Member Organizations, The Center for Restorative Approaches, celebrated an important milestone recently - their "Sweet 16" anniversary as an organization. During the "A Better Way Sweet 16 Fete" on September 16th, they opened the evening with a brief showing of a short advocacy video before guest speakers of all ages shared their stories about the impact that this restorative approaches work has had on their lives and youth justice work. 

Congrats to Mental Health Heroes, Avery Brewton and Dr. Brian Turner!

The American Psychological Association recently highlighted the research published by the Coalition for Compassionate Schools and quoted our senior advisor and Tulane Professor, Dr. Stacy Overstreet. Check out the full article from the APA here.

May your school year be filled with compassion and healing,

- The Coalition for Compassionate Schools Team