Addressing Racial Trauma

Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), is the mental and emotional injury caused by racial bias, ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes (Helms, Nicolas, & Green, 2010). Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) in the U.S. are most vulnerable(-ized) to racial trauma due to living under a system of white supremacy (MHA, 2020). Racism and discrimination, direct and vicarious, are harmful to mental and physical health, negatively impact learning, and are linked to a myriad of other lifelong challenges.

We can address racial trauma in our schools by disrupting and dismantling these structural and systemic inequities, and developing and modeling equitable and anti-racist policies and practices (NCSMH, 2020). Racially diverse schools and classrooms, and nondiscrimination practices are associated with positive educational, social, and cognitive outcomes for all students, majority and minoritized group, and long-term educational, economic, and civic outcomes (Wells, Fox, & Cordova-Cobo, 2016).

We'll be rolling out our 20-21 GCSC and ACTION Collaborative Network professional learning offerings in the coming week. Racial justice will be at the center of everything we do. We look forward to learning and growing together during this year. In the interim, we hope that these resources help, and we wish you all the best with school reopening.

In solidarity,

Andrew and the GCSC Team


Articles (NCSMH)

  • Liu, S. R., & Modir, S. (2020). The outbreak that was always here: Racial trauma in the context of COVID-19 and implications for mental health providers. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(5), 439-442. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000784

  • Amy E. Fisher, Sycarah Fisher, Chelsea Arsenault, Rachel Jacob & Jessica Barnes-Najor (2020) The Moderating Role of Ethnic Identity on the Relationship Between School Climate and Self-Esteem for African American Adolescents, School Psychology Review, 49:3, 291-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1760690


Previous Tips and Resources



















Events and Webinars


The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Center for Safe Supportive Schools (CS3) is inviting applications for school or district teams to participate in free virtual training and follow-up implementation support for school-based group trauma interventions. The three trainings offered are Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS), Bounce Back, and Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (STRONG). The CS3 aims to better integrate culturally responsive and trauma-informed policies and practices into comprehensive school mental health systems nationwide through a partnership between the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH), the NCTSN Center for Trauma Care in Schools (CTCS; Massachusetts) and the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR; Illinois). Applications are due September 14, 2020. Click here for more information.




































Save the date - October 29: Virtual 25th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health - Equitable & Effective School Mental Health (NCSMH)