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Becoming Healing-Centered: Organizations

After learning about PACEs Science, most people ask, “What can I do?” The good news is that there are so many steps that we can take to become healing-centered! Action may involve engaging at individual, organizational, community, or policy levels.

Education

Education

  • Community Roadmap to Bring Healing-Centered Schools to the Bronx: A Project of the Healing-Centered Schools Working Group
    This roadmap provides a tool to help you begin conversations in your school or district about healing-centered education. This Roadmap will provide you with examples of healing-centered practices, research to support those practices, and the tools to initiate and sustain change.
     
  • Creating a Healing-Centered School District
    In Fall 2019, Chicago Public Schools, led by the Office of Social Emotional Learning, embarked on a long-term effort to transform CPS into a healing-centered district, recognizing that to achieve our five-year vision, we need to ensure collective wellness for all CPS students, staff, families, caregivers, and communities. To transform CPS into a more trauma-engaged, culturally-responsive school district means being trauma engaged and culturally responsive. The full Healing-Centered Framework (in English and Spanish) has more information, including examples of what these components might look like for each stakeholder group.
     
  • Design Principles for Schools: Five Tools to Help You Build Trusting Relationships with Your Students, 2021
    What would it mean if all of the places where children are growing and learning were designed to meet each child, the whole child, where they are and help each and every one develop to their fullest potential? The Essential Guiding Principles for Equitable Whole-Child Design outlined by the Design Principles project can be used to create learning settings that do exactly that, by centering on:
    • Positive developmental relationships
    • Environments filled with safety and belonging
    • Rich learning experiences and knowledge development
    • Development of skills, habits, and mindsets
    • Integrated support systems
       
  • The District Leader's Guide to SEL and Equity: 32 District Leaders Share Advice on Advancing Equity and Social-Emotional Learning by Panorama Education
    To explore what advancing SEL and equity looks like on the ground, the authors of this guide asked 32 district leaders "What is your district’s most important practice for promoting social-emotional learning and equity?" This guide compiles their strategies and advice as well as summarizing key lessons drawn from the contributors across the country
     
  • Healing-Centered Community School Strategies: A Key Investment for COVID-19 Recovery, 2021
    A healing-centered community school implements a whole child approach to teaching and learning to address the fundamental physiological and safety needs of students as central to their cognitive development and growth. Strengthening and sustaining such strategies require intentional, complementary investments in policy, funding, and resources across general education, early learning, special education, health, and community development. This publication set provides guidance for educators, policymakers, and advocates who wish to deploy state and federal recovery resources to address immediate student needs and build sustainable systems and practices that serve all students and advance equity.
     
  • Missouri Model for Trauma-Informed Schools, 2020
    The Missouri Model provides guidance at the highest level for organizations within every sector on how to become trauma informed. This document is meant to translate the Missouri Model guidance into language and processes to support schools interested in beginning the journey to become trauma informed.
     
  • Reimagine and Rebuild California Schools: Restarting School with Equity at the Center, 2021
    COVID-19 and our nation’s reckoning on racial justice is calling on all of us—from state to local leaders, teachers, parents, students and advocates—to transform schools and districts as we know them. Our education system cannot “go back to normal” because the prepandemic normal was not working for all students. We can instead reimagine and rebuild an education system where equity is at the center of every single decision.
     
  • Resources for Educators from Iowa ACES 360
    ​Educators and staff in the education field have a unique opportunity to create trauma-informed environments that support children and families. This site has guides, trainings, and resources for educators.
     
  • A Roadmap for Trauma-Informed Organizations by Resilient Georgia
    ​The implementation of a trauma-informed approach is an ongoing organizational paradigm shift. Trainings on this website are divided into Trauma Aware, Trauma, Sensitive, Trauma Responsive, and Trauma Informed for the following sectors: first responders, healthcare providers, faith-based, juvenile justice, community, early childhood & education, youth-serving organizations, public health/social services, youth, school, parents & caregivers, and business.
     
  • Trauma-Informed Educator Training Series from the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children
    Educators play a critical role in helping their students thrive. Now they can learn or refresh their skills in supporting children and youth who have experienced trauma. 
     
  • Trauma-Informed Schools from the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice, 2022
    There is a growing movement in schools nationwide to become trauma-informed. This report explains the why and how of trauma-informed schools and provides concrete rationale, possible action steps, and examples for creating thriving school environments. 
     
  • Unconditional Learning for Educators
    Alex Shevrin Venet helps teachers connect theory to practice to create equity-centered trauma-informed schools. Among the many resources on the site are these two resource lists: