School shootings, hurricanes – the wind killing people, sweeping away their homes – and threats of nuclear war. You think you had a tough childhood?! Look at what’s on the TV screen today! Call Hope Rising (405-676-4140). Give children hope!
Sometimes it's easy. A push and a smile - that's a step. Now repeat that 1000 times, morning, noon, and night, and incorporate it into a larger learning platform - and now you're onto something!
How do you know that works? Because 'a push and a smile' is elementary, a simple, single coalescing moment - that, weirdly enough, works for you too! In an adult day too often measured by sighs of frustration or disappointment, you learn to remind yourself of the important things and to persist with your goals. If that's true for someone living a 'normal' life, can any of those lessons apply to those impacted by trauma?! Much more so. Because while you may welcome it, you may no longer need the push and the smile - and a hundred other things - every day. These children do.
Hope Rising's 2022/2023 ‘My Best Me’ SEL curriculum for schoolchildren from elementary school through the 12th grade features lesson plans intended to nurture resilience and hope in all students. They also borrow from research into post-traumatic growth (PTG): deep emotional and internal growth is frequently sparked by and results from traumatic events and crises.
Check it out at https://hoperisingsel.com
Hope Rising’s curriculum taps into researchers’ broader understanding of traumatic experiences and how they can often serve as a springboard for personal growth. PTG helps survivors develop heightened levels of awareness and self-understanding which can in turn trigger more meaningful and beneficial relationships with others in the community.
Most people recognize the term PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as a serious and long-lasting condition impacting individuals who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. However, trauma researchers believe that PTG - transforming traumatic events into inner strength, resolve, and positive action - is, while less well-known, at least as common a phenomenon. It has been studied by psychologists for almost 30 years and their conclusions are almost self-evident: it is possible to create pathways for psychological and social well-being out of disorder, extreme stress, and trauma.
For children and adolescents you take care of, the practices of Social Emotional Learning can help nurture PTG, offering kids safe, secure, environments and consistent, engaged, caring relationships with both adults and their own peers. Hope Rising’s curriculum is predicated on an environment that offers children a sense of predictability, validation, and support that they can rely on - especially during periods of significant change, uncertainty, or pain in their life, or through experiences that they cannot control.
Hope Rising, inspired in part by the teachings and life experience of Dr. Chan Hellman, is dedicated to relationship building. This is one of the five core tenets of SEL and is critical for post-traumatic growth in children. It involves developing healthy relationships with diverse members of the community - a process the curriculum facilitates by teaching skills such as active listening, constructive conflict negotiation, cooperation, and empathy.
The curriculum is typically taught by teachers and/or counselors in a classroom setting, though distance learning is also possible. Hope Rising provides a private Facebook group for teachers and/or counselors implementing the curriculum. This is an area for collaboration, additional training, program feedback, and tips on how to use the curriculum in your particular school.
If you're a teacher or a school board member or in any way responsible for children in your district or community, you should give Hope Rising a call at 405-676-4140.
And/or go to https://hoperisingsel.com/the-case-for-sel and consider how this might benefit your school and community. Give Hope a chance!
