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Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE

Trauma Informed Care

Alignment Partners with EPEL and Gail Borden Public Library to Provide Trauma Informed Care Training to Early Education Professionals

Over 80 early education professionals and community advocates participated in Alignment’s first ZOOM broadcast of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Interface Training through a partnership with the Elgin Partnership for Early Learning and Gail Borden Public Library.  The goal was to attract as many early education providers currently in a stay at home status.  Through a generous grant provided by Grand Victoria Foundation, early education providers that were currently in a furloughed status from their centers received a $50 stipend for completing the 2.5 hour training. The training conducted on May 12th was scheduled to help promote Trauma Informed Care Day across the community celebrated on May 15th. 

 In preparation for the school year to begin in the fall,  Alignment is committed to training staff from community organizations that provide services to early learners, elementary, middle and high school students.  When asked why this is an important piece of Alignment’s mission, Nancy Coleman, executive director, responded “Given the trauma associated with COVID 19, our entire community will be better equipped to help our community’s children and youth by activating a trauma informed care culture.” 

Celebrate Trauma Informed Care Awareness Day

Trauma Informed Care Day 2020

May 15, 2020 is Illinois’ second annual Trauma-Informed Awareness Day. Established by Illinois House and Senate resolutions in 2019, Trauma-Informed Awareness Day recognizes the impact of childhood adversity and highlights the importance of prevention, community resilience, and trauma-informed care.

In addition to establishing Trauma-Informed Awareness Day, the resolutions promote two other important strategies:

1) that policy decisions enacted by the state legislature should take into account early childhood brain development and the concepts of toxic stress, early adversity, and buffering relationships, and

2) that officers, agencies, and employees of the State of Illinois whose responsibilities impact children and adults should learn about ACEs, toxic stress, and structural violence, as well as about trauma-informed care practices that promote healing and resiliency.

Trauma-Informed Awareness Day comes at a critical time for us as we experience the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this uncertain time, it is more important than ever to support each other and work together for a trauma-informed future.

Trauma-Informed Care Resources

How Childhood Trauma Effects Health Across A Lifetime TED Talk by Dr. Nadine Burke (16 mins)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Adverse Childhood Experiences

NEA Today, Trauma the effect on children and learning

Why Do We Lose Control of Our Emotions? – great for kids

SAMHSA Trauma-Informed Approaches

U-46 to Recognize May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day

Trauma Informed Care Day - May 15, 2019
26 Schools Plan to Raise Awareness of Trauma-Informed Care.

School District U-46 is inviting local organizations to join the District in recognizing Wednesday, May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day. The approach supports an informed response to students experiencing adverse situations, both past and present, and it is gaining momentum in the state’s second-largest district and across the nation.

“Trauma-informed care is a vital component of U-46’s multi-tiered system of support,” said U-46 Director of School Safety and Culture John Heiderscheidt. “It provides social-emotional supports to students who need it the most, and helps them reach academic success as they overcome adverse experiences.”

The Illinois State Senate passed a resolution in March 2019 declaring May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day, and U-46 schools will be recognizing the day by raising awareness about the importance of trauma-informed care and how it provides social and emotional support for students who have experienced any adverse childhood experiences.

Trauma-informed care prepares educators and others to better respond to students with adverse childhood experiences. It is an approach that recognizes how these experiences may affect a child in the classroom, and it gives educators tools they can implement to support students who have experienced trauma. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study performed by the Center for Disease Control found that traumatic experiences during childhood have a tremendous impact on future social and health problems.

To support U-46 schools in providing trauma-informed care, the Alignment Collaborative for Education created a team focused on providing training to teams within U-46 schools, called resiliency teams. Since 2017, 26 schools in U-46 have formed resiliency teams.

On May 15, school resiliency team staff will tie a purple ribbon around the flagpole at their school and wear Trauma-Informed Care Awareness Day stickers in an effort to raise awareness and start conversations about trauma-informed care.

Local organizations are invited to join U-46 in recognizing May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day. Packets containing stickers and a purple ribbon will be available for pickup at the District’s Educational Service Center, 355 E. Chicago Street. More information about trauma-informed care can be found on the U-46 website.

 

Waste Management Donation

Waste Management donates $5,000 to support Alignment's work.Vaughn Küerschner, Public Sector Representative of Waste Management, met with Alignment’s Executive Committees on February 26, 2019, to award a check of $5,000 to support Alignment’s work to improve early education offerings, build schools with trauma informed care cultures, and offer all students the opportunity to benefit from educational pathways graduating academic and career ready.  Alignment greatly appreciates this donation and Waste Management’s continued support of its work for the last three years.

Daily Herald recognizes Trauma Informed Care A-Team

The Daily Herald recently featured the work being done by U-46 in the area of Trauma Informed Care.

John Heiderscheidt, U-46 Director of School Safety and Culture and Alignment Collaborative for Education A-Team Chair was quoted as saying “We are having trouble with growth as an organization and as a country.  Kids in toxic stress are operating in fight, flight or fear mode.”

To read the full Daily Herald article, please click on the link below.