In the News

When Luke gets angry, he tries to remember to look at his bracelet. It reminds him of what he can do to calm himself: stop, take a deep breath, count to four, give yourself a hug and, if necessary, ask an adult for help.

A program started in Kansas City, Kan., offers teachers and parents an alternate way to deal with intense emotions and potentially avoid the long-term impact of trauma. The program has been spreading in recent months, even getting national attention.

A school program that helps young children who have experienced traumatic events is getting national attention.

Every year, thousands of children in the U.S. are expelled from school before they reach Kindergarten. Special correspondent Molly Knight Raskin reports on a program in Kansas City, Missouri, that’s trying to stem the trend by looking beyond the classroom to the issues these children face at home – and helping them to feel safe.

The federal agency that focuses on mental health recognized Trauma Smart, the program that helps pre-school kids who've already had bad experiences in life.

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health found a link between a child's social skills in kindergarten and how well they were doing in early adulthood.

Share. Play fair. Say you're sorry. Those of just some of the things you may have learned in kindergarten or before.
New research shows your child's social and emotional skills in kindergarten are a strong predictor of success in early adulthood.

The city's first lady launched a new initiative Saturday helping teachers and caregivers help children dealing with trauma — it will train thousands of early childhood teachers and staff members on how to help kids deal with trauma.

The first lady of New York City was in the Bronx Saturday to announce the launch of a new program designed to help children facing serious adversity.

Chirlane McCray, primera dama de la ciudad, dice que este proyecto se ha creado con el objetivo de que adultos, maestros y trabajadores sociales adquieran estrategias que les permitan ayudar a los niños para que estos puedan lidiar con situaciones adversas.

Unos 40,000 niños neoyorquinos serán beneficiados del programa Trauma Smart, una nueva iniciativa que será administrada por la Administración de Servicios Infantiles (ACS) para ayudar a los padres, proveedores de cuidado infantil y maestros a apoyar a los niños que experimentan situaciones de adversidad.

Some 40,000 New York City children will benefit from Trauma Smart program, a new initiative that will be administered by the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) to help parents, child care providers and teachers to support children who experience adverse situations.

Following a trend that state officials are calling the needed wave of future care, Starfish will be the first agency in Michigan to adopt Trauma Smart, a comprehensive training program that allows teachers and therapists to help children heal from any number of traumatic experiences that could include being assaulted, seeing a family member killed, or being abused or neglected — all things that negatively affect children’s ability to learn or become emotionally strong. And it now operates the largest infant mental health program in the country.

Fixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work. 

Children in Head Start have a higher exposure rate to trauma than other children. 

Through its partnership with Trauma Smart, MCA and OLHSA have provided onsite training and coaching support regularly throughout
the year.

Ozark Action Head Start is collaborating with Crittenton Children’s Center in Kansas City to bring the innovative Trauma Smart model to the six county area.

With effective laws already on the books to address school safety, it’s going to take creative solutions to remedy the onslaught of recent threats of school violence.

Expanding access to mental health services could be a start.

An avant-garde program with Kansas City roots has taken up ground with Ozark Action to provide support for children surviving traumatic experiences.

Trauma Smart (TS) is an early education/mental health partnership designed for schools. The goals of TS are to reduce the stress of chronic trauma, support children’s social and cognitive development, and develop an integrated, trauma-informed culture for young children, parents, and staff. TS includes training, classroom consultation, intensive evidence-based clinical treatment, and peer mentoring of teachers. 

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I recently spent a day visiting with Early Head Start (EHS) teachers and infant early childhood mental health (IECMH) clinicians at Starfish Family Services in Inkster, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. I was there to learn how the 55-year-old organization integrates IECMH consultation into each of its early learning classrooms, which serve children between the ages of six weeks to five years old.

Five students in the Hickman Mills School District have been fatally shot or injured by gunfire since 2016.

At least three students were shot and killed this year alone, including 9-year-old Dominic Young Jr. On Dec. 4, 16-year-old Marquise Ellinburg was found with gunshot wounds outside a home on Corrington Avenue. He later died at a hospital.

Violence has taken a serious toll on the Hickman Mills School District. But the trauma affects the entire community. School officials can only do so much to support students and their families. It takes a broad-based effort to deal with the far-reaching consequences of violent crime.

School district officials have implemented services to address trauma and conflict resolution in an effort to help students cope with the loss of a classmate or family member and prevent future violence.

A city program called Trauma SMART, launched three years ago, is working like magic to help parents, caregivers and teachers better support children who may experience adversity.

The Administration of Children's Services is trying what they call a “holistic” approach to addressing children who act out. EarlyLearn NYC programs, such as the one taught at Bronx Community College, provide child care to families in the city, but the “Trauma Smart” program includes emotional education.

Recent research published in the journal Psychological Trauma about the intervention Trauma Smart points to the effectiveness of training school staff in trauma-informed approaches. Data from the evaluation indicated that participants were satisfied with the training, they scored high on the knowledge assessments, and staff attitudes became more favorable to trauma-informed approaches from before to after implementing the training program.