Sodus Central School District, the Wayne County Department of Mental Health, and the Wayne County Action Program convene and lead the Safe Schools Healthy Students Initiative. The SSHSI will place mental health services and supports within reach of students and families in the high-needs rural catchment area of Wayne County, NY. Sodus is joined by Clyde-Savannah, Lyons, Red Creek, Williamson, Gananda, Palmyra-Macedon, Williamson Central School Districts and Wayne Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services in a journey toward trauma informed culturally responsive Community Schools. By improving mental health, behavioral health and educational ecosystems while providing focused coaching and training for adults serving 12,500 students countywide, our project will create a measurable impact upon our youth’s ability to thrive in Trauma Informed Schools. In addition, our Community Schools Model channels interagency cooperation and co-locates trauma informed services that directly serve over 2,500 students in our three most needy school districts.
The population served by this proposal are 12,500 students, K-12 in Wayne County. Of these students, over 10% of children experience 2 or more Adverse Childhood Experiences before they start Kindergarten. 1 out of 5 Middle School Students and 1 out of 3 High School Students report substance abuse issues at their homes. Alcohol related crashes are 1.55x the NYS rate. 1 out of 7 Middle School students report being bullied, and 1 out of 5 students report feeling unsafe at school. Our youth here are 1.6x more likely to be classified as “disengaged” compared to the rest of the state. 2,500 youth will be served in yr 1, 2,800 in yr 2, 3600 in yr 3, 4,500 in yr 4 and a total of at least 7,500 unduplicated individuals over the project.
The 3 goals for this project are drawn from the National Strategy for Trauma-Informed Care Operating Plan developed by the Interagency Task Force on Trauma-Informed Care. Locally, our Systems Integration Team will develop systems to coordinate across the county for the benefit of children and families at risk for or impacted by trauma and to promote resilience. Our Training and Coaching Team owns the second goal of promoting the dissemination, implementation, and sustainability of best practices. And our Trauma Informed Care Team runs our 3rd goal of providing direct service support the promotion of wellness and resilience for students who have experienced or are at-risk of experiencing trauma exposures, including exposure to substance misuse. Systems: We use the TFI to track progress towards improved quality of services and linkage across agencies using schools as resource hubs. We will increase the number of students and family who are screened for MH services, and we will increase the number of supports co-located and accessible at our schools. Wayne County MH Department already co-locates clinical offices in our schools. As part of the SSHSI, Wayne County MH will hire a Community Schools Liaison to join MTSS meetings and provide expertise in arranging supports and treatments for young people and families recovering from trauma. Training and coaching will move teachers, school administrators and co-located partner agencies towards fidelity use of proven programs and encourage use of common interventions for the purpose of interoperability. Regional experts from WFL-BOCES, FLX Community Schools, and SEL Interventionists from Peaceful Schools will develop training plans with districts. Experts will coach and train staff on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, Restorative Practices and evidence-based curriculums like Botvin’s Life Skills Training. Tier II supports include small groups focused on social skills and attachment, and the Check In/Check Out intervention will be a gateway to referrals for increased MH Support. Cross-sector training in proven wraparound care models will increase interagency cooperation.