Series Title: Creating Cultures of Staff Wellness for our Schools and Community Partners

Intended Audience

This series designed for educators, state and district leadership, student mental health staff on campus, and community mental health allies.

Learning Objectives

Participants who join this session will be able to:

1. Recognize the value and urgency of leading initiatives that promote district and school’s cultures of wellness.
2. Gain strategies to prevent chronic stress in the workplace.
3. Identify policies and practices supporting cultures of wellness across the SE region.
4. Access evidence-informed approaches to building systems and infrastructure for supporting staff wellness and collective care.

Session overview

Are school staff well positioned to care for students? Do your policies and procedures make collective care the norm? It is no secret that teachers and school staff are experiencing increasingly high levels of workplace stress. If not buffered, we know this stress has the potential to: (a) impact staff health in the short and long term, (b) increase district/agency expenses resulting from absenteeism and turnover, and (c) decrease student learning. As empirical evidence of these impacts sharpens focus on the issue, leaders are being called upon to create workplaces more aligned with fundamental human needs. This training will outline opportunities for leadership that work to buffer staff stress, as well as school-based, evidence-informed programs that promote staff wellness and care.