| NCSMH awarded grant for collaborative National Center for Safe Supportive Schools |
| NCSMH Friends & Colleagues,
The National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine recently launched a 5-year initiative to improve the integration of trauma-informed schools (TIS) efforts into comprehensive school mental health systems nationwide through the establishment of the National Center for Safe Supportive Schools (NCS3). The NCS3 is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) and is being funded through a five year, $3 million federal grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The NCSMH was one of six organizations nationwide to be awarded a SAMHSA National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative Category II grant in 2020.
Dr. Sharon Hoover, NCS3 Principal Investigator and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, noted that “the NCS3 will shape multi-tiered systems of mental health support for students through a social justice lens, and will better integrate national work on trauma-responsive schools within broader school mental health quality improvement efforts. We are eager to continue our work to support the implementation of equitable, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed school mental health.”
NCS3 aims to address existing gaps in the widespread implementation of trauma-informed schools (TIS) through a partnership between the NCSMH, the NCTSN Center for Trauma Care in Schools (CTCS; Massachusetts) and the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR; Illinois). The NCS3 has three goals:
- Goal 1: Build state and district capacity to deliver multi-tiered, trauma-informed policies and programming, including universal (Tier 1), targeted (Tier 2) and intensive (Tier 3), within K-12 comprehensive school mental health (SMH) systems nationwide;
- Goal 2: Support training and implementation of school-based trauma interventions that attend to social determinants and injustices and engage and support student populations that are marginalized, including youth of color and newcomer (refugee and immigrant) youth;
- Goal 3: Integrate TIS into pre-service educator and mental health provider preparation.
New NCSMH faculty member, Dr. Tiffany Beason, will lend her expertise in the areas of trauma-informed and culturally responsive school mental health services to the NCS3. Dr. Beason shared, "I am excited about reconceptualizing trauma care for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and newcomer youth by attending to social influencers of health and education, addressing systemic racism and resulting disparities, and leveraging the strengths and assets of these communities."
The NCS3 has announced their first training opportunity for school clinicians to receive training in school-based trauma interventions for K-12 students, including one training specific to newcomer (refugee and immigrant) youth. |
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| CONTACT: Sharon Hoover, Ph.D. NCSMH Principal Investigator and Project Director shoover@som.umaryland.edu
National Center for School Mental Health Department of Psychiatry 737 W. Lombard St., 4th floor Baltimore, MD 21201 410-706-0980 schoolmentalhealth.org
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| The National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is funded in part by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal Child and Health Bureau to advance school mental health programs and policies to promote success for America's youth. |
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