Welcome to the Safe Start Center: Unlocking the Development of Children Exposed to Violence

1. Welcome to the Safe Start Center: Unlocking the Development of Children Exposed to Violence April 18, 20131:30 pm ET PRESENTERS: Elena Cohen Susan E. Craig Jim Henry

2. Housekeeping Items • Please be attentive to these housekeeping items during today’s Webinar: • You will be viewing the presentation in PowerPoint format on your computer and listening on your phone – you do not have to do anything • During the Webinar to limit noise and feedback your phone should be set to mute. This should be the default setting but if phone is not muted please Press *6 to mute your line. • After disconnecting from the webinar, two brief surveys will appear on your screen that includes questions about the WebEx Technology and the content of the webinar.

3. How To Ask a Question

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9. Overview • Introduction • Outline of webinar • Introduction of panelists • Questions & Comments

10. Introduction • This week is the seventh annual observance of Children’s Exposure to Violence (CEV) Prevention Week. Each year, Safe Start has helped lead efforts to increase awareness and reduce the impact of CEV among organizations, communities, and agencies across the country. This webinar will discuss how exposure to violence impacts a child's development and ways that schools and the child welfare system can better respond to trauma.

11. Panelist: Elena Cohen • Elena Cohen is the current director of the Safe Start Center. She provides technical assistance, and consultation to the Safe Start Promising Approaches sites; develops and disseminates resources related to children’s exposure to violence; facilitates efficient sharing of knowledge and skills among grantees, national partners, and the field.

12. Panelist: Susan E. Craig • Dr. Susan E. Craig is an accomplished author having published books including Reaching and Teaching Children Who Hurt: Strategies for Your Classroomas well as having created the essential training series Including All Children: Supporting Preschool Children with Disabilities. She is a professional trainer committed to training school staff throughout the country. Her work provides them with professional development tools to create an inclusive and trauma-informed environment for their students. Her ultimate goal is to help parents and caregivers support children effected by trauma and help them to thrive.

13. Panelist: Jim Henry • Dr. Jim Henry is Western Michigan University Children’s Trauma Assessment Center co-founder/project director. He has spent many years working in child welfare, and developing & providing trauma-informed instruction. He is the principal investigator of 3 National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative and 2 Safe Start Initiative grants. He is a coauthor of a book, Seeking Justice, and has trained over 50,000 professionals on child maltreatment, trauma-informed practice, trauma-informed systems, and secondary traumatic stress.

14. Outline • Developmental Perspective on the Impact of Exposure to Violence • The Critical Role that Schools Play in Helping Prevent and Reduce the Impact of Exposure to Violence on Children • The Emergence of Trauma Informed Child Welfare Systems

15. Unlocking Child’s Developmental Potential • Children’s Exposure to Violence • Developmental perspective • Perception of threat • Symptoms • Caregiver’s response

16. Children’s Exposure to Violence • Definition • Incidence/Prevalence • Polyvictimization

17. Developmental Perspective • Viewing childhood exposure to violence in the context of normal developmental processes . • Identifying the links between disrupted and normal development. • When stressors interfere with the successful resolution of developmental tasks, problems may arise in the next stages of development.

18. Perception of Threat • How we “understand” violence determines impact and response. • Developmental stage impacts interpreting safety (emotional and physical). • What the child sees and what the child imagines.

19. Caregiver’s Response • Nature of caregiver’s response follows the child’s perception and caregiver’s history. • Nature of caregiver’s responses strongest predictor or child adjustment.

20. Variations in Symptoms • Infants and toddlers • School age children • Adolescents

21. Recommendations • Understand impact of exposure/trauma on children’s development and mental health • Ask questions • Anticipate triggers • Understand impact of exposure/trauma on parent-child relationships • Manage children’s emotions • Care for the caregiver

22. Resources • Understanding Children’s Exposure To Violence (Issue Brief) http://www.safestartcenter.org/pdf/IssueBrief1_UNDERSTANDING.pdf • Healing the Invisible Wounds (Guide for Families and other Caregivers) http://www.safestartcenter.org/pdf/Healing%20Inv%20Wounds_English_aug09.pdf • Impact of Exposure to Violence on Developmental Stages http://www.safestartcenter.org/pdf/impact-exposure-violence-on-dev.pdf www.safestartcenter.org

23. The Critical Role that Schools Play in Helping Prevent and Reduce the Impact of Exposure to Violence on Children Dr. Susan Craig

24. First Steps • Awareness • School Climate • Instruction • Policies

25. Trauma-sensitive Awareness Incidence Impact on Learning Triggers

26. Impact on Learning Arousal Attention Memory Language

27. Triggers Changes in Routine Silence Confrontation Frustration

28. Trauma-sensitive Climate Positive Behavior Support Peer Collaboration Adult Support

29. Trauma-sensitive Instruction Interest driven Activity Based Collaborative Reflective

30. Trauma-sensitive Policies Discipline Bullying Parent-Teacher Teams

31. Resources - Books Craig, S.E. (2009) Reaching and teaching children who hurt: Strategies for your classroom. Brooks Publishing Rossen, Eric& Robert Hull (2012) Supporting and educating traumatized students: A guide for school-based professionals. Oxford Press State of Massachusetts (2005) Helping traumatized children Learn.. Available through Massachusetts Advocates for Children. State of Washington (2009) Compassionate Schools: The heart of teaching and learning. Available throught the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

32. Resources - Websites/Blogs www.acestoohigh.com www.meltdownstomastery.wordpress.com www.safestartcenter.org/resources www.mindfulschools.org www.morningsidecenter.org (See Brief #3 Schools)

33. For more information contact: info@safestartcenter.org http://www.safestartcenter.org Safe Start Center

35. Building a Brain-Based / Trauma-Informed System for Children

36. Our current system paradigm?

37. The Child Welfare Challenge … “All too often the convenient decision is wrapped in a package as the right one”… Judge Hofmann (Texas Child Protection Court) 2013

38. Typical / Current Child Welfare Model PARENT CHILD PARENT TRAUMA

39. Trauma-informed Model UNRESOLVED PARENT TRAUMA PARENT CHILD EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: WORK, LEGAL, FAMILY

42. Embracing a Paradigm Shift “An entirely different way is being developed of viewing all kinds of individual and social misbehaviors and maladaptations, moving from viewing them as “sick” or “bad” (or both) to injured”. Bloom (1997)

43. “We must movefrom viewing the individualas failingif s/he does not do well in a program to viewing the programasnot providing what the individual needs in order to succeed.” Dubovsky (2000)

44. Well-Being Has Multiple Domains, including but not limited to safety & permanency Adapted from Impact Youth Services, 2011; http://impactyouthservices.com/goals.htm ACYF-CB-IM-12-04: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/laws_policies/policy/im/2012/im1204.pdf Initiative to Improve Access Kickoff

45. Symptoms that Overlap with Child Trauma and Mental Illness Initiative to Improve Access Kickoff (Griffin, McClelland, Holzberg, Stolbach, Maj, & Kisiel , 2012)

46. The Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System Addresses Child, Parent, and Organizational Traumatic Impact

47. Severely Emotionally Disturbed Neglected Bully Trauma Victim Abused Delinquent DSM Diagnoses Emotionally Impaired Student

48. Recent interview with child welfare caseworkers and judges Interviewer: “How often do judges ask about the trauma needs of kids in foster care?” Caseworker: “Never” Interview: How often do caseworker reports address the trauma needs of kids in FC? Judges: Never

49. What can we do to minimize trauma for kids • One county’s answer: “We know that when children are removed it is going to be traumatic. So we decided to start a trauma removal team where at each removal a member of our trauma team goes out with the worker to focus on the needs of the child. This has been highly successful in reducing traumatic stress to our kids.” Luther Lovett Mecosta County Child Welfare Manager

50. The Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System Addresses Child, Parent, and Organizational Traumatic Impact