Three CT School Districts Take Steps to Address Students' Trauma and Mental Health Needs

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Three Connecticut school districts are working to provide students with a full range of behavioral health and trauma supports through Connecticut’s Project AWARE initiative. Project Aware is a program which supports partnerships and collaboration between state and local systems to promote healthy development of school-age youth and prevent youth violence.  AWARE is an acronym for Advancing Wellness and Resilience Education.

The effort is funded through a federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant, awarded to the State Department of Education, and developed in collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families and CHDI. 

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Over four years, CHDI will help Middletown, Naugatuck, and Windham school districts to provide evidence-based trauma treatments (CBITS and Bounce Back) to students; as well as assist with training, evaluation, and school mental health assessment through the School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System - a free, interactive web-based system designed to improve school mental health. Schools and districts can use SHAPE to assess their current mental health capabilities, identify areas of need, and develop a comprehensive school mental health plan.

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The three main goals of  Project AWARE are to increase awareness of mental health issues of school-age youth; train educators and other youth-serving adults to detect and respond to mental health issues; and connect youth and families to appropriate services.  The core elements of Project AWARE include:

  • programming to promote social emotional development among all students,

  • activities to strengthen school-family-community connections related to student well-being,

  • training to increase staff knowledge of mental health risk factors,

  • screening strategies to identify trauma and behavioral health concerns as early as possible,

  • connections for students in need to effective treatment resources, and

  • use of data to drive decision making and prioritization of resources.

The grant provides Connecticut with an opportunity to apply the model for a trauma-informed multi-tiered system of supports for school mental health laid out in CHDI’s IMPACT: Healthy Student’s and Thriving Schools in the three Project AWARE districts.