What's in the News?
Wellbeing Check-In
Introduction
The Quarterly Update
- Introducing our New Executive Director
- Researchers of Creative Change
- Tending to Your Wellbeing: Trauma Stewardship Series
- Annual New Orleans School Behavioral Health Survey
Resource Roundup
Membership Corner
- New Orleans Youth Alliance Update
Recognitions
- National Association of School Psychologists Conference
- School Social Work Association of America Conference
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In a recent training, we embraced the idea of power thoughts. Power thoughts are phrases, responses or mantras that you can use in moments of stress. Power thoughts are a form of self compassion that can help increase the space between a trigger moment and response. Some examples of power thoughts are: “This is a part of my job too”, “I’m choosing to focus on progress over perfection”, and “This behavior isn’t about me”.
Take a moment to consider what your power thoughts might be. What are your 1-2 power thought phrases? When might you use them?
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Welcome to our Spring Newsletter! We hope that your spring is off to a bright start. We are ready to show you the fruits of our labor from the seeds we planted throughout the Winter! With an early carnival season this year, the Coalition team strategically undertook intentional planning time before letting the good times roll. Now that the king cakes have been boxed up until next year, it’s time to march ahead into Spring and put plans into action. | |
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Introducing Our New Executive Director
The Coalition for Compassionate Schools is excited to announce that we have hired an Executive Director to provide oversight to the collective work we are accomplishing. Dr. Allisyn Swift comes to this role, having served as a Coalition member through Beloved Community. We were able to enjoy a nice Spring day with beignets and cafe au lait to catch up with Dr. Swift to learn about her past work, how she came to this role, and what her vision is for the Coalition. Check out some of the highlights in the video below and be sure to check out the full interview on YouTube!
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Researchers of Creative Change (ROCC)
Our youth participatory action research group (YPAR), Researchers of Creative Change, spent their Winter months building out their research plans. The middle school researchers from ROCC are currently working to analyze survey, interview, and focus group data they collected at partner schools. They are going to share this data with their school communities to help improve the school experience for all students and bring youth voice into the conversation about what makes a quality educational experience! Check out some photos from their recent research group training at the Tate, Etienne, Prevost (TEP) Center in February.
If you are interested in learning more about the Researchers of Creative Change YPAR project, or would like to be invited to the research showcase, reach out to our Youth Engagement Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Jesse Chanin.
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Tending to Your Wellbeing:
Trauma Stewardship Series
The first session of our first ever Trauma Stewardship series was phenomenal. Thank you to the education professionals who showed up to learn more about tending to their wellbeing and secondary traumatic stress. Participants examined what is in their current soil, what burnout and recharging looks like, and completed their daily life pie.
There are still 20 seats remaining for sessions 2 and 3 of the series. Learn more and register now to join us by going to the registration page or reaching out to our Dissemination Coordinator, Anthony Marino.
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New Orleans School Behavioral Health Survey
As we wrap up this school year, it's time to assess our collective soil to build up our gardens for next year.
The annual New Orleans school behavioral health survey is set to launch on April 15th. This 30-minute survey will be emailed out to school mental health providers to be completed by May 17th. A report will come out in late July highlighting the strengths, opportunities and challenges to servicing students' mental & behavioral health needs across the city.
If you have any questions about this survey, how findings will be used, or your mental health provider does not receive a link in their inbox on April 15th, please reach out to our Dissemination Coordinator, Anthony Marino.
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If you are interested in planting your own seeds that can begin blooming in the new school year, it’s a great time to assess your individual soil.
Creating trauma-informed policies in schools can help to reduce the burden and stress of staff that are already susceptible to secondary traumatic stress.
The Coalition has created a policy review checklist to help assess where you are at and where you need to go to create trauma-informed and healing-centered policies.
Check out the tool here and reach out to our Dissemination Coordinator, Anthony Marino if you would like consultation or support to create the fertile environment you need for your organization to blossom.
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Each newsletter we will highlight work from at least one of our Coalition members. This quarter, check out some highlights from our partners at the New Orleans Youth Alliance and what they have been and will be up to this Spring:
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- Welcomed a new Executive Director, Dr. James Dabney!
- Welcomed a Trauma-Informed Youth Programs Coordinator, Cia Blackstock. Cia's work will support the work of the Coalition for Compassionate Schools Trauma-Informed Training of Trainers Project.
- The continuation of NOLA-YPQI, the NOYA Youth Leadership Fellowship, the many initiatives of the Reengagement Center, and so much more.
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Year 9 of the New Orleans Youth Program Quality Initiative is off to a great start! From now until May, NOYA will be hosting several workshops for youth development professionals in our network. Learn more and secure your spot here!
- The Reengagement Center expanded its staff, formed a Youth Advisory Board composed of REC participants. Youth participants serving on the Advisory Board advised the Louisiana Budget Project–Opportunity Youth Skills Coalition to create policy priorities for opportunity youth in Louisiana.
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The Reengagement Center also expanded our programming to The Net: Gentilly, and throughout the year the outreach & recruitment team, along with youth participants, supported several REC events such as Life & Lemons and REC & Chill. Stay in the loop and follow REC on social media to learn more.
- The NOYA Youth Leadership Fellowship is resuming! Interviews are being conducted and the newest cohort will be announced soon!
- Another round of the Rebuilding Our Village Youth Fund has launched! Grantees will be identified in soon.
Be sure to sign up for NOYA’s newsletter to stay current with their upcoming initiatives.
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We are so excited to recognize Coalition members for their continued work planting seeds for the future of trauma-informed, healing-centered principals. | | |
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In February two members of the Coalition - Dr. Courtney Baker, from Tulane University and Dr. Berre Burch, from Children’s Bureau of New Orleans - presented at the 2024 National Association of School Psychologists in New Orleans. Their session, Trauma-Informed, Healing-Centered Approaches to Expanding Mental Health Care in New Orleans Schools showcased the research from Safe Schools NOLA and the ongoing work of the Coalition to support building trauma-informed systems of support for schools in New Orleans, regionally, and nationally. | |
In March, two other members of the Coalition - Avery Brewton, Project Director of the Trauma-Informed Training of Trainers Project and Anthony Marino, Dissemination Coordinator - presented a pre-conference session at the National School Social Work Conference hosted by the School Social Work Association of America. The session, Whole Child, Whole School: Designing and Installing Trauma-Informed Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (TI-MTSS) helped school social workers consider their role in building TI-MTSS in their schools/districts and provided them with time to explore tools and research developed from the Coalition's work. | |
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We look forward to seeing the beautiful plants, flowers, and gardens that begin to bloom as this work continues to move towards a brighter tomorrow.
- The Coalition for Compassionate Schools Team
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