Dear Colleagues,

How do you know if the RENEW Center workshops will benefit you? Ask yourself the following questions:

Does our district have a coordinated district-wide, building level, all staff approach to providing grief and trauma recovery support services for the 6-8 years necessary for a child to process a death or traumatic event?

Does our district and buildings have a written plan that is sustainable when district level administrator, building administrator or counselor are replaced? Are new staff given training in the plan?  Is the plan revisited after each event to reassess and improve?

Is s building-level counselor the Incident Commander when an event occurs in his/her building or working side-by-side his/her alternate after receiving defusing services if involved in the event? Does a district team composed of staff from feeder schools assisting the building counselor or do they come for a short while, provide services, and then leave?

Are administrative staff trained in Incident Command Systems through FEMA and are all emergency plans compatible with that system so that interactions with community responders flow smoothly? Is this training required of all new staff hired as administrators or SROs?

Have staff identified all students and staff who have experienced a loss or trauma and may be triggered by the current event?

Do your schools have an evidence-based bullying prevention program that is implemented fully?

Do your schools have an evidence-based suicide prevention program that starts at late elementary school and goes through high school?  Have building staff been trained in gatekeeper training? Does your district have a screening tool that all counselors have been trained to use to assess and refer students who might be suicidal? Are new staff provided training in the assessment tool to ensure consistent use across the district?

Do your school counselors, administrators, and SROs have a homicidal threat assessment that they have been trained to use with students? Are new staff trained in the assessment tool to ensure consistent use across the district?

Have staff attended a comprehensive grief recovery workshop that will provide them with reproducible journals and activities for students and a newsletter for parents as well as everything counselors need to help teachers provide appropriate support to low-level grieving students as well as those affected by a crisis for the duration of their grief process?

Are all teaching staff provided training in classroom grief activities following a death related to a student or staff member?

Does your recovery plan include a description of services to be provided and by whom when a single student (low-level) loses someone through death or experiences a trauma?

Are all remembrance or memorial activities for student and staff deaths provided equally to all impacted individuals regardless of cause of death? Does the district plan clearly state what remembrance or memorial activities are approved for use by staff to ensure consistency across the district?

Are all counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses in the district trained in best practices to support students who are grieving a loss or coping with a trauma? Were administrators and SROs included in this training?

Are support services provided to staff as well as students?

Does our district have a team to provide Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for students and staff following a traumatic event? Are teachers trained to provide low-level impacted students with debriefing?  Does our response team debrief itself after each event? Is this service included in our written recovery plan?

If your district purchased or “borrowed” another district’s response plan, has it been personalized to your district’s specific needs and staff?

If your discovered weaknesses in your recovery program, then yes, these workshops and resources will be beneficial.

OPTIONS YOU MAY CONSIDER

1. The most effective approach to bringing a district into compliance with best practices is to provide district-wide training on site with ALL Response team staff involved which includes administrators, counselors, social workers, psychologists, nurses, and SROs. Your trained counselors and administrators are then equipped to train all other staff to be appropriately supportive.  The cost for an all-day workshop is $600 consulting fee, plus travel. If you would like a proposal, please inquire. My fees are kept reasonable because of my desire to serve as many people as possible so that together we can make a difference for children.

2. If you would prefer a group webinar, which in my opinion is less effective because of the quality of group interaction, because you need to save travel costs please inquire.  Group webinars can be established for your team if you have a minimum of 10 people. Cost is $600 per day consulting fee.

3. The least effective use of my program is to purchase an online course for $55 which will give you the written resources provided during options 1 and 2.

4. I am available for state all day, pre-conference workshops at the same fee schedule. I have provided such workshops for numerous districts including KY, SC, VA, IN, OH, TX to name a few.

If your staff need continuing education credits, I am happy to provide you with my resume, agenda, and evaluation so that you can apply to your own state organization to provide them.  Due to the number of districts served, I can only provide a certificate of attendance.

WHERE HAVE THESE WORKSHOPS BEEN HELD?

These workshops have been held in 42 states over the 

last 32 years to districts, regional and state counseling and administrator’s organization, educational service centers and have included police, fire, EMS, Homeland Security, Public and Mental health providers as well as staff from all levels.  I provide best practice information to ensure your program is effectively implemented on a building and district-wide level. In addition, I have worked with school district after 9/11, school shootings, hurricanes, tornadoes, bus accidents, suicides, terminal illness deaths and bring realistic examples to the workshops.

The foundation of my work is to enhance the skills and resources of school staff to provide a CARING school climate for all students.

I appreciate all that school staff do in service to students, colleagues, and parents and appreciate opportunities to contribute to enhancing their skills and resources.

If you have any questions, please call me at 859-806-6236.

Respectfully,

Judy Keith, Ed.D.