Following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faced widespread trauma related to displacement, housing instability, limited access to health care, the dismantling of the public school system, and rising youth violence—often involving school-aged children. These conditions revealed the urgent need for coordinated, trauma-responsive supports in schools and communities.

New Orleans is selected as one of 15 cities to participate in the National Forum for Youth Violence Prevention, a federal initiative focused on data-driven, cross-sector strategies to prevent youth violence.

Dr. Stacy Overstreet and Dr. Bonnie Nastasi (Tulane University Psychology Department), receive funding to start the first Trauma Informed School Psychology Doctorate Training Program in the United States. Doctorate students were trained to conduct trauma-informed applied research, assessments, and therapeutic interventions in New Orleans Schools.

The New Orleans Behavioral Health Council formed the Youth Mental Health (YMH) Workgroup to address student trauma and school-based mental health needs.

• Provided crisis prevention and response training to 104 participants from 48 public schools and 8 community agencies
  
• Offered training in evidence-based treatments for youth exposed to trauma
  

Recognized that clinical services alone are not sufficient without healing-centered school environments

As New Orleans transitions to a decentralized charter school system, the YMH Workgroup evolves into the Trauma-Informed Schools Learning Collaborative (TIS-LC) housed in the NOLA Health Department, to better coordinate trauma-informed approaches across schools.

Thirteen New Orleans public schools apply to participate in a year-long pilot to install trauma-informed approaches.

• Six schools are selected; five complete the pilot
  
• Schools receive support from United Way of Southeast Louisiana
  

TIS-LC provides local and national trainings on trauma-informed school practices

Participating schools:

• Train educators and staff in trauma-informed approaches
  
• Conduct needs assessments
  
• Develop and implement trauma-informed action plans
  

Action plans emphasize social-emotional learning, restorative practices, and more positive, preventative discipline policies, with funding from the Department of Justice and United Way of Southeast Louisiana.

With funding from the National Institute of Justice, TIS-LC and Tulane University launch Safe Schools NOLA (SSNOLA), a four-year research study partnering with six additional schools.

Findings show:

• Increased educator knowledge and confidence in trauma-informed practices
• Improved school-wide policies and practices that support student well-being
• Reduction in aggression and victimization from the perspective of educators
  

Dr. Overstreet and Safe Schools NOLA awarded the Community Partner Service Award from FirstLine Schools Charter Network for their work across several FirstLine Schools.

TIS-LC engages in strategic planning to strengthen and expand its work with an explicit emphasis on racial equity based on the data from SSNOLA. Schools participate in trauma-informed, culturally responsive training Anti-racism consultation supports both internal collaborative processes and school-based implementation

The Department of Justice BJA STOP School Violence grant funds the Trauma-Informed Schools Training of Trainers (ToT) project to build sustainable capacity at the school, beyond initial intervention year at the school, charter management organization, and district levels.

• Five schools participate across Cohorts 1 and 2
  

Baptist Community Ministries and LoveTruth Foundation funds pilot expansion to Jefferson Parish schools.

• Five additional schools added for Cohort 3 & 4
• TIS-LC certifies 17 trainers across 5 charter management organizations and NOLA Public Schools
• Trained educators reach more than 300 educators and approximately 3,000 students.

With funding from Baptist Community Ministries and the LoveTruth Foundation:

• ToT expands to three additional Cohort 3 schools
  
• C for CS certifies 17 trainers across 5 charter management organizations and NOLA Public Schools
  

Trained educators reach more than 300 educators and approximately 3,000 students.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Trauma-Informed Schools Learning Collaborative:

• Conducted educator well-being surveys to support TIS-LC members in well-being supports and mutual care.
• Hosted webinars to support school leaders
• Released white papers to engage the public and policymakers with the goal of enhancing supports for educators
• Addressed pandemic-related stress, trauma, and disruption in school communities

Through a five-year strategic planning process led by Converge for Change focused on equity, governance, communications, and sustainability, the organization adopts a new name that reflects its strengths-based mission: Coalition for Compassionate Schools (CforCS, pronounced C-Force)

The Coalition for Compassionate Schools becomes a National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Category II national training site with support through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This grant focused on

With this funding, CforCS begins approaching system-wide needs in order to sustain impact by:

• Publishing the School Behavioral Health Report
• Mapping trauma-informed, school-based initiatives across New Orleans public schools
• Advancing compassionate, equitable, and sustainable systems of care in education
  

To build upon the findings of the SSNOLA research and areas identified as needed for additional study, CforCS uses grant funding from SAMHSA to add capacity with additional staff and Coalition members. New efforts focused on:

• Soliciting youth perspectives on the creation and maintenance of trauma-informed policies and practices in schools through youth participatory action research (YPAR)*
• Developing restorative approaches as an alternative to traditional discipline
• Implementing trauma-informed universal screening and trauma-informed multi-tiered systems of support (TI-MTSS).
• Continued work around collective care for educator wellbeing and sustainability.

* Funding for YPAR was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.

The Coalition for Compassionate Schools coordinated all of the efforts it had been working on to launch the Trauma-Informed Schools Project (TISP). This project addressed system-wide change and needs by:

• Hosting a Trauma-Informed Schools Institute for charter leaders & MTSS Institute to support coordinated care.
• Developing educator wellness events to support wellbeing, particularly during school closures and transitions.
• Supporting crisis and prevention planning in conjunction with PrePARE, Children’s Bureau of New Orleans, and Project Fleur-de-Lis.
• Developing learning modules around key content, differentiated by role, to support classroom and system-level adoption of trauma-informed practices.
• Started a hybrid learning cohort to support initial uptake and exploration of trauma-informed practices and system-readiness activities.

Through funding from the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention:

• Support and strengthen schools’ TI-MTSS, including universal screening and direct Tier 2 social emotional learning groups in partnership with the Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies and Tulane University Service Learning and Independent Studies students.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Justice STOP School Violence grant:

• Expand YPAR efforts with additional middle school partners and into high schools.
• Create the Parents on Board initiative, expanding participatory action research to include parents at partner schools and increasing parental voice in trauma-informed efforts.