In the News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.