“Back to school!” We’ve all heard this phrase and are certain it elicits a different response from nearly everyone who hears it. For the students in Rose Brooks Center’s Project SAFE® program, back to school can mean much more than ‘back to homework,’ it can mean weekly support from their Project SAFE prevention specialist. It is in this environment that students learn to cope with the unique challenges they face every day, as well as gain the resiliency skills needed to reframe any trauma they may have experienced.
In one area school last year, a Project SAFE prevention specialist watched the resiliency skills he teaches take action after a tragic event impacted the entire student body. “Kids wanted to talk and express their anger. The tension was palpable,” the prevention specialist explains. “But as we continued to meet, students began to shift their focus to more positive long term outcomes and practice social support techniques. Of course it was a tragic circumstance, but it gave them all the opportunity to reframe the trauma they had experienced.”
Being on-site multiple days allowed the prevention specialist to help support school staff, who requested his presence, along with the students who needed to talk. The school thanked Project SAFE for being on-site stating, “His presence de-escalated a situation that could have negatively impacted the rest of the school year.”
To learn more about Rose Brooks Center’s school-based violence prevention program, visit us online
at www.rosebrooks.org/services/community-outreach.