Building Resilient Communities Through Education with Ready, Set, RISE!

This summer Discovery Education convened a panel at the 2021 Social Innovation Summit to discuss with healthcare industry leaders how they use technology and strategic partnerships to support education. The conversation included Maria Lafleur, National Program Lead Thriving Schools, Kaiser Permanente, speaking about Ready, Set, RISE!

Education leaders agree that we cannot separate students’ emotional health and well-being from their ability to be successful in school. Each day, educators share that now, more than ever, so many of their students are struggling with self-esteem and relationship issues, anxiety, and general stress. COVID-19 has left students missing friends and school, deprived them of the normalcy and connections of sports and activities, and unfortunately in some cases, forced students to deal with additional hardships including job losses in their families, sickness, and death.

Students dealing with these issues may have difficulty paying attention in classes or doing homework. “The answer is always resilience,” said Maria. “A trauma-informed approach is important to everyone and creates a quality school environment.” It’s important we develop strategies that integrate trauma-informed care and social-emotional learning to help students reconnect and enjoy academic success now and in the future.

Regardless of the location, safe, predictable, empowering, and collaborative spaces are beneficial for all students and educators. With the resources from Ready, Set, RISE! – a unique virtual initiative from Kaiser Permanente, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and Discovery Education – educators anywhere can help ensure that the learning environments they create are fit for all students.

The series of no-cost professional learning modules provides educators with a foundational understanding of trauma-informed educational practices and policies that I can use to create more student-centered learning environments. Modules focus on timely topics, including educator self-care, trauma in our society and trauma-informed care in the educational environment.

The new “Transforming into a Trauma-Informed School” module provides educators with strategies to better understand how to transform their school into a trauma-informed school through implementation science. The module empowers educators to connect and prepare students for academic success in school today and in the future. By the end of the on-demand professional learning module, educators can:

• Describe the phases of implementation
• Recognize the different roles of a RISE leadership team
• Apply readiness techniques to understand their school’s readiness, urgency, and fit to begin integration within their school

Communities can go even further by focusing on social-emotional learning with no-cost resources from the Social-Emotional Learning Coalition. More than two decades of research shows that SEL can help young people develop social responsibility, practice leadership, and gain personal and social skills. COVID-19 and its impact on education underscores educators’ need for curated and vetted content supporting the whole child in any learning setting.

Find the Ready, Set, RISE! professional learning modules at ReadySetRiseModules.com and in the Ready, Set, RISE channel in Discovery Education’s K-12 Learning Platform.