Hello and Happy Holidays!
Many of you have expressed interest in the work of our non-profit, the Educational Access Group. As we approach 2020 we want to share an update and ask you to partner with us by making a donation.
Our work was recently featured in an article by The Colorado Trust which does an amazing job highlighting the direct impact this work has on both teachers and students. This year we are partnering with five Colorado schools which means we train and support over 250 educators serving over 2,560 students from 3 to 21 years of age.
This summer we will be presenting our work in Canada at the 2020 international symposium for the Neurosequential Model Network.
As a Doctor in Public Health (Katie) and an educator (Halley) we established the Educational Access Group so that students could thrive in school not just hope to survive the system. We use a strategic framework to deliver training, evaluation and support to school staff around trauma-informed approaches. We deliver content and approaches that are critical for educators to be successful in serving students; particularly students who have been impacted by trauma ranging from abuse and neglect to poverty and racism.
A child’s exposure to trauma or toxic stress can have lifelong implications that are especially evident and impactful in school. Over and over we see the story play out where a student impacted by trauma struggles academically, socially, emotionally and/or behaviorally and, instead of receiving the support they need, they receive consequences and the message that “school is not for you”. We aim to increase academic growth, improve attendance, support teacher retention and decrease the amount of students inequitably placed in the “school to prison pipeline”. Our work targets the way students are received, treated and supported by the adults in their schools and the results have been tremendous. An educator we work with stated, “The trainings, conversations, tools, techniques – entire experience – was the single best training I’ve had as a teacher. Two years later and I still use the information I gathered there. This experience filled in the gap I knew I had as a teacher because it helped me learn how to hold students accountable even if they have different emotional and behavioral needs”.
Each school we support does their best to provide payment for our services but the demands on school budgets are complex and no school is able to pay the full amount. We are asking you to be a part of our work by donating this holiday season.
We are always excited to talk about our work if you would like to learn more and would appreciate you passing this ask on to those in your network who might want to donate.
Thank you for your donation!
With Gratitude,
Katie and Halley
