UB School of Social Work, NF schools collaborate to teach trauma-informed concepts

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo School of Social Work’s Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care (ITTIC) and the Niagara Falls City School District are working together to build a new kind of champion.

The Niagara Falls High School Champion Team is a group of specially trained students within the pioneering collaboration between the district and the university that’s teaching trauma-informed practices in Niagara Falls City Schools.

The Buffalo Bills Foundation in May provided $10,000 through a Social Justice Grant to further expand the program, which launched in 2020 when the district received a federal mental health grant and reached out to the UB School of Social Work for guidance and implementation.

“Our research showed that UB possessed the expertise we needed to get started,” says Mark Laurrie, PhD, Niagara Falls Schools superintendent. “ITTIC was clearly the most comprehensive delivery system for a program like this.”

ITTIC is supported and guided by directors and affiliates with expertise in research-based, trauma-informed practices. The institute provides knowledge and promotes implementation of trauma-informed care, an approach that prioritizes an understanding of trauma’s effects and focuses on creating safe and supportive environments that minimize the risk of retraumatizing individuals.

With ITTIC as the grant’s major consultant, the district first trained its teachers, administrators and staff. It then moved to bus drivers and bus aides, people who, Laurrie points out, are often the first and last adults in the district to see kids during the school day.

Once the employees had received instruction from ITTIC trainers, Laurrie says it was decided to “take the program to another level” and include students.

And this was new ground.

“There are empowerment groups and after-school programs but adding the trauma-informed piece to a student’s curriculum is a concept we were able to create thanks to the superintendent’s support and vision,” says Megan Koury, one of the ITTIC trainers, and an adjunct professor in UB’s social sciences and interdisciplinary program. “It’s really a first.”

She began with 15 high school students. Most were seniors, but all high school grade levels were considered to build a pipeline to replace those students who were graduating. The district then extended the program to eighth graders and is considering a further expansion that would include sixth and seventh graders. Like other elements of the school curriculum, such as math or the sciences, the training varies depending on the age of the student.

The interview process for student champions tunes into their social and emotional intelligence and their capacity to handle learning about trauma in various forms, from historical to racial to systemic.

“We’re looking for students who are on the kind of emotional journey that makes them a good participant,” says Koury. 

Their job isn’t to intervene, but to identify concerns that can be communicated to someone who can direct those students to resources available in the school and outside the school, if necessary.

“Trauma and adversity in general exist everywhere,” says Koury. “The better educated we are about the signs and symptoms of trauma, the more we’ll be able to direct people to professionals who can help start the process of healing and resiliency.”

Laurrie sees the trauma-informed instruction as part of a comprehensive educational picture that teaches essential emotional skills that prepare students for careers — just like the classes they take in math, literature and science.

He says the concepts provide students with a valuable tool for the future.

“To be a graduate ready for the world is to have your emotional intelligence in the best possible place, just as you have your academics in order and your financial literacy well developed,” he says. “Our student champions at the high school have gone out in the community as representatives of the school, sharing what they’ve learned with community groups, the board of education, the city council, the board of the housing authority and, most recently, the front office staff of the Buffalo Bills.”

Student response has been overwhelming.

“Getting participants is not a problem,” says Laurrie. “One of our big challenges is that demand exceeds capacity.”

That doesn’t surprise Koury, who says kids want to have an impact.

“I hear it repeatedly from students interested in becoming a champion,” she says. “They tell me, ‘I see the world around me and I want it to be better.’”