This 4-part training series was developed as part of the evolving collaboration between Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence (TU) and the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). The purpose of these trainings is to offer education and guidance to interdisciplinary professionals across the country who are confronted with gun violence and threats to school safety in their local districts and communities.
The soaring pressures confronting educational, healthcare, human services, and law enforcement professionals are having an impact on all levels of the workforce. As such, it is increasingly apparent that gun violence and political strife leave many well-meaning educators (at all levels and in locations beyond formal school settings) and community leaders feeling overwhelmed, under-supervised, and highly susceptible to symptoms of primary and secondary traumatic stress.
In the 21st century, educators are confronted with mounting responsibility, real-time threats of gun violence, and demanding public scrutiny. In districts across the country, responses to gun violence are variable and insufficient. Administrators and faculty working on the front-line face rising societal pressure, fractured and conflicted families, economic and racial disparities, mental health and substance abuse problems, and frequent changes in enrollment and housing, among others. Over time, the dissonance between aspirational commitment to educational norms and adverse day-to-day experience can lead to professional burnout, cynicism, despair, and indifference. Trauma and tragedy deepen despondency and require concerted insertion of hope, collaboration, and change at each level of the educational setting in which we assess and intervene.
Over four training sessions, we will examine facilitated conversations in a range of contexts for communities devastated by gun violence and continuous threats to school safety and civic cohesion. The seminar’s content will focus on different areas such as administration and leadership, crisis assessment and intervention, conflict resolution, teambuilding, responses to traumatic events, and wellness, among others. Participants will:
- Receive exposure to a Five-Step approach to facilitation of safe and effective assessments and interventions with individuals and groups experiencing trauma and intensive interpersonal stress.
- Consider ways in which trauma and interpersonal stress impact them personally, professionally, and organizationally.
- Reflect upon the influence of age, culture, development, ethnicity, gender, race, sexuality, spirituality, and responses to trauma in their work with students, families, communities, and colleagues.
- Utilize the group as a laboratory for learning, personal growth, and professional support.
- Receive a copy of Systems Consultation When Trauma Strikes: Stories of Hope, Collaboration, and Change to supplement the seminar’s sessions and experiential activities.
Please Note: For the first session, participants are asked to bring a symbol and metaphor which represents their motivation and drive to enrich their personal and professional competencies and skills at this stage in their career. Symbols can embody emotions, thoughts, values, inspiration, challenges, best hopes, worst fears, and so forth.
Trainers:
Michael J. Schultz, Ed.D. is a licensed psychologist, family therapist, systems consultant, and Senior Fellow with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). His book in collaboration with CWLA is entitled: Systems Consultation When Trauma Strikes: Stories of Hope, Collaboration, and Change. More information about Dr. Schultz and his work can be accessed at www.doctormikeschultz.com
Abbey Clements is the Executive Director and a co-founder of Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence (TU). She is a survivor teacher of the Sandy Hook School tragedy in 2012, and elementary educator for over 30 years. Clements has been a gun violence prevention activist, wearing many hats over the last near-decade, including as a Moms Demand Action volunteer leader (Deputy CT Chapter Leader, Survivor Fellow, National Training Team Lead, to name a few) and as a strategic consultant on gun violence issues for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). She has been featured in various publications and documentaries, including Newtown, If I Don’t Make It, I Love You, Bullets Into Bells, Marie Claire, AFT Voices, USA Today, among others.