Center for Adult and Continuing Studies

Course Description

In this foundation-setting course, participants will be walked, step-by-step, through the 10 steps to create a trauma-informed, resilience-focused school.

Presented by Dr. Caelan Soma, the course content focuses on resilience and an emphasis on understanding how trauma impacts children and their school experience. It provides proactive strategies such as fostering connections, prioritizing social and emotional skills, establishing safety, and promoting play. Detailed information and concrete actions are also covered, and in a way that doesn’t just answer the “why” but also the “how” to create the best classroom and school supports for traumatized students and the school professionals who serve them. Later in the course, a strong focus on understanding the link between a student’s private logic and their academic achievement and behavior deficits in the Circle of Courage’s universal needs is addressed, as well as how to assess students and create behavior support plans for each. Strategies to collaborate with families and communities and to support staff will be presented also, as well as examples of how to collect and utilize outcome data.

This course will be most beneficial for K-12 educators, administrators, and others who work in education.

10 Steps to a Trauma-Informed, Resilience-Focused School is offered in partnership with Starr Commonwealth, a global leader in trauma-informed care. Starr's mission is to lead with courage to create positive experiences so that all children, families, and communities flourish.

Learning Objectives:

After participants have completed this course, they will be able to:

1. Identify at least three questions to ask to promote a trauma-informed and resilience-focused mindset when working with students in the school setting.
2. Name the four main protective factors of resilient youth.
3. Describe how trauma impacts the deep and outer brain functions, specifically in the school setting.
4. Recall at least five proactive strategies for every classroom.
5. Express the concept of private logic and provide at least two examples of how private logic impacts behavior in the school setting.
6. Recognize at least three ways your school can collaborate with caregivers, family, and community.
7. Recount the importance of self-care for educators and other school professionals.
8. Report at least three evaluation strategies to use to determine your school’s level of trauma-informed and resilience-focused practices.