Over the past several years, New Orleans has seen tremendous upgrowth in publicly, privately, and federally funded initiatives to support trauma-informed school-based training, behavioral health services, research, and educational advocacy. Although the upgrowth is relatively recent, Hurricane Katrina figured prominently throughout the interviews. The failure of the levee system during Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath of the disaster was repeatedly referenced during the interviews. The disaster was an instigating event for many organizations to form or shift focus to fill in gaps in care created or revealed by the disaster.
Though schools have worked tirelessly to support children and families during COVID , the young people of the Crescent City are still experiencing significant challenges that impede their ability to be present, learn, and grow at school. Several organizations are answering the call for assistance in caring for youth and adults in our schools through direct services, staff education, and educational advocacy.
With funding from Baptist Community Ministries, the Coalition for Compassionate Schools conducted a mapping project to identify trauma-informed school-based initiatives in the areas of training, service delivery, research, and educational policy. The project provides an analysis of the current landscape of existing trauma-informed services available to New Orleans Public Schools, especially mental and behavioral health supports. Many of our community stakeholders cited these areas as a key to the success and resilience for educators and students. Future analyses will provide information on redundancies and gaps in the collective work of the various organizations, common facilitators and barriers in their work, and the impact of their work.
