Southwest Partnership
Education Committee and Schools Meeting
October 5 2017
6pm
Present
Lou Packett
Curtis Eaddy
Dotie Page
Jane Buccheri
Ivan Leshinsky
Khandra Sears
Arounda Riley
Edith Gilliard Canty
Jane Mayrer
Erika Brockman
Quincy Goldsmith
Sonia Eaddy
Deb Stanley
Sheila Drummond Camm
Emily Ames Messinger
Jeff Dugan
Dan Morrison
Beverly Jacobs
Hollie Mincey
University of Baltimore Presentation on Trauma
Dr Stanley is with the University of Baltimore School of Criminal Justice and has been doing a great deal of work about trauma. She shared some literature about the school and the work that they’ve been doing.
School has around since the late 1960s and early 1970s. They have grown into two primary areas: traditional criminal justice and work around victimology. Runs the Roper Victim Assistance Academy of Maryland, and every year sponsor community volunteers. The victimology program has a very central emphasis on trauma. Dr Stanley reviewed the program’s structure. The materials shared with the group is attached below. UB believes that the work that they are doing could be modeled in the schools and other community organizations. The training walks participants through how to respond to trauma and the importance of follow-through.
UB is currently working on developing trauma informed organizations. Education leadership and agencies and bringing them together collaboratively and helping the participants come to an agreement on how to respond to trauma.
Also owns the Illuminations creating change program, created by two brothers who had experienced long-term trauma. They created artwork for the program that expresses how they felt so separated from what is perceived as normal. Interested in adapting the program for schools and children and an art therapy program. Can work with schools to develop curriculums that meet the needs of individual schools.
Ivan: how do you measure the outcome of the program with schools? Have used grade point average, attendance, substance abuse records, delinquency rates, follow cohorts through high school. Were able to see that just having conversations with adults about these issues helps change behavior.
Sonia discussed her positive experiences with similar trauma and the positive effect that trauma informed work had on her and her experiences and understanding. Children in this area witness a lot of violence and trauma and she supports having services like this in the community. Dr Stanley–parents and caregivers are the most important advocates in having trauma informed programming at schools.
Lou: how can we fold this into the schools? Erika: 400 kids in the school, and at least a third have been directly impacted by trauma–have resources that come in, and put a lot of resources in but just don’t have the know how to address thing–how could this look if we did it across Southwest Baltimore. Arounda: have a particular situation because of the loss of a student last year to a hit and run, and that class is really struggling–and in general really need the resources.
Dr Stanley: huge issue because without the resources to address this, we are just dumping people into the criminal justice system and not addressing the issues. 30 years ago there was funding for programs for kids who were high risk. They were in schools constantly and that as when there was effectiveness. There just isn’t the funding currently and the biggest picture is to change the whole political landscape to make sure that the resources are there. Currently looking for money to push back into the school systems.
Jane M: is UB connected with the Kirwan Commission? Dr Stanley: there are advocates involved. Jane, hasn’t heard one word about addressing trauma and health.
Sheila: there are a lot of things happening the schools now that if people were able to link trauma to that work then there would be a move from trauma informed to trauma responsive then there would be a lot of work done to break down silos and make programs more effective.
Dotie and Dr Stanley discussed intergenerational trauma. There hasn’t been a lot of work on that. Lou–is there a way to get to parents through working with children? Dr Stanley: its a significant challenge if the parents are the abusers. Arounda: have to be careful with parents–they have to know that there is a strong positive relationship. Have to build a school-wide culture and love children.
Dr Stanley: everyone working in the schools is experiencing these issues. Have to resources for the staff as well. The best way to start is to start at the top (principals, vice principals) and get them on board and then you can work down.
Curtis: maybe we could have a culture of community members speaking up and addressing trauma. Having kids speak up and speak out to encourage a culture change in the neighborhood. He volunteered his own workshop to the schools and the community.
Edith: also become conditioned to the environment–it covers over the trauma.
Lou: if we get the community school model in place, what happens is that more and more neighbors are willing to become partners in the school and are willing to share resources and ideas. Are going to need a lot of people involved in this from every neighborhood. Committee will have to determine a framework of how they will integrate this work into the neighborhoods.
Khandra: could the prinicpals meeting be a setting to begin the conversations about addressing trauma–could be working on a parallel track with the community school work.
Ivan: what does a trauma education community look like? What does the culture look like? If we know what it looks like that’s the model we can shoot for.
UB is ready to put resources together to address this issue but want to be careful. Arounda: have done trauma training before, but would be very interested in doing more.
Dotie: what do we need to do as next steps? Lou: need to do a forum and make a presentation to all of the school leaders. Dr Stanley: want the SWP to be behind it and be in support of it. Might be helpful to do the trauma responsive training to community leaders and members as a way to bring it back to their neighborhoods. Dr Stanley will settle on some dates and we’ll organize it.
Community School Update: Focus Groups
Our first round of focus groups will focus on partners. We’ve asked all schools to send us a partner list, and we will contact them to schedule focus groups.
We are also in need of volunteers for to help focus groups–would Wednesday the 12th work for those interested?
Dr Mincy discussed her program and its successes. It costs $600 a year for a student to be involved.
Parent Academy
Lou is interested in having a tutoring session for parents and students that they would do together and would be an opportunity for parents to gain the skills they need to support their child academically. Lou has started reaching out to the education departments in the city to see if they wanted to collaborate. Ivan the first thing comes to mind is the need to do outreach and provide incentives. We would do it with the schools. The Committee discussed details. Dr Stanley finds the name a turn-off–maybe make it more positive? Ivan suggested having some sort of certification they could earn.
