Session Overview 

Join the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal project to explore the “fourth R” in the crisis continuum of care: Renewal. After readiness, through response and beyond recovery, renewal work asks us to focus on structural changes and procedures, coordinating policy, processes, and practices that center regeneration and healing. 

Together, we explore the seven elements foundational to trauma-informed school crisis recovery and renewal, including  meaning-making (Neimeyer, 2001), building and fostering resilience (Ungar, 2011), post-traumatic growth theory (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006), and organizational change after crisis and healing-centered school approaches. 

This session is a continuation of our four-part series “Promoting School Preparedness, Community Resilience, and Recovery in the Face of Adversity” that took place in June and July of 2022. The series focused on the role of schools and school mental health providers throughout crisis planning and response and offers a framework for planning that is part of a larger trauma-informed and healing-centered approach to education and school mental health. The previous sessions covered Essentials, Improving Readiness, Response, and Recovery and Maintenance. You can review these sessions here.

*The main session will be held for 60 min of teaching; we will pause at noon for those who need to exit and will then stay on for 15 more optional minutes for Q & A with the presenter.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Understand the practices to support the school crisis renewal phase, common definitions of post-traumatic growth and healing-centered schools and case examples
• Access and apply 1-2 individual and organizational practices to support school recovery towards the fourth R, renewal.
• Identify practices and approaches that your current crisis readiness and response can be expanded upon to include renewal.

Speaker:

Leora Wolf-Prusan (she/hers) is the Director of Partnerships & Learning at the Center for Applied Research Solutions, serving as the Project Director for the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal (SCRR) project and as the school mental health field director for the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC); previous roles include serving as the national field director of a SAMHSA initiative (ReCAST) and a TA provider for the Now is The Time Initiative (Project AWARE). Wolf-Prusan is dedicated to work focused on educator mental health, wellness, and trauma-informed approaches to education and operates through a framework in which public health, social work, and education intersect. Her research examined the impact of student death on teachers, what factors contribute to teachers building resiliency, and what supports teachers need from the school system in the event of a student homicide or other traumas.

She received a BA in international relations and a BA in Spanish with a minor in Social & Ethnic Relations from the University of California, Davis; a teaching credential from Mills College; and an EdD in educational leadership from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work in school crisis recovery and renewal is motivated by and dedicated to educators and youth who envision schools as a platform for community and connection.