Resilience in School Environments (RISE) - The proposed project Resilience in School Environments (RISE) is a multi-faceted program designed to select and consistently implement trauma-sensitive practices that promote mental wellness, improve and increase access to mental health services for students, expand community mental health services within schools, increase the visibility of mental health providers in the 38 schools serving kindergarten through twelfth grade, establish relationships with staff and families, normalize mental health, and increase mental health literacy and increase collaboration with local mental health centers to facilitate coordination of care during transitions between inpatient or crisis care and school. Milwaukee Public Schools’demographics include 0.4% Native American, 50.2% African American, 27.8% Hispanic, 9.6% White, 8.1% Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – 0.1% and 3.8% Two or More. A total of 19.6% of students are identified with special education needs, 76.6% are economically disadvantaged, and 12.5% of students are limited English proficiency. For students with mental health needs, staff frequently identify and make referrals for families to community-based services. MPS has established School Community Partnership for Mental Health (SCPMH), which is a school-based mental wellness model for collaboration between schools, parents, and community mental health providers. While the SCPMH model has been effective in improving outcomes for students served by the project, there have not been noticeable improvements for the rest of the students served in those schools. Project RISE seeks to systematize mental wellness supports across Tiers 1, 2, and 3 at the project schools, and use the experiences to expand those systems to other SCPMH schools as well. The proposed Project RISE will accomplish the following goals: (1) promote mental wellness through the creation of safe, equitable, and engaging schools where staff is equipped with the knowledge and resources to support student wellbeing; (2) improve and increase mental health services to students through a process of continuous improvement and expansion of community mental health services within project schools to better meet the mental health needs of students; and (3) increase the capacity of the local school district to recognize students in need of a continuum of mental health services and to provide those services in a timely fashion. Several outcomes will be measured throughout the grant project. In addition to the outcomes, there will be an increase in the number of students receiving Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions. School ratings based on the Trauma Sensitive Schools assessment tool will increase each year as more staff is trained and the program is implemented. Finally, there will be an increase in contact between mental health facilities and schools.
