RALEIGH, NC (June 21, 2018) — The Public School Forum of North Carolina is pleased to announce that it has received a grant to support the Forum’s NC Resilience and Learning Project from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The NC Resilience and Learning Project works to improve the lives of local residents by creating safer and more supportive learning environments for students in local school systems, especially where trauma is prevalent in their student populations. The NC Resilience and Learning Project is a whole school, whole child framework to create trauma-sensitive schools that will improve academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes for students.
In addition to $412,500 from the Trust, other funders of the NC Resilience and Learning Project include the ChildTrust Foundation, The Belk Foundation, John M. Belk Endowment, and Rowan-Salisbury Schools.
“Thanks to the generous support of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, we will be able to take what we’ve learned during our pilot year of the NC Resilience and Learning Project and expand this highly successful model into four more districts in eastern North Carolina,” said Keith Poston, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina. “We are extremely grateful for this wonderful opportunity and look forward to positively impacting the lives of so many North Carolina children.”
With the support of this grant, the NC Resilience and Learning Project will conduct in-school staff trainings that help educators understand trauma’s impact on learning and how to build student resilience by fostering unifying language and expectations to promote a school-wide cultural shift. Trainings will also address how to recognize the neurobiological foundations of students’ disruptive behaviors, and, ongoing coaching and technical assistance will be provided to help school teams create action plans around trauma-sensitive strategy implementation. Positive outcomes that have been achieved from similar models in other states include lower suspension and office referral rates and improving attendance and academic achievement.
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The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust was established in 1947 and is now one of the largest private trusts in North Carolina. Our mission is to improve the health and quality of life of financially-disadvantaged residents in North Carolina. The Health Improvement in North Carolina program area supports community-wide health solutions across the state. The Local Impact in Forsyth County program area fosters equitable and sustainable solutions to improve the quality of life in Forsyth County. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. serves as sole trustee.
About the Public School Forum of North Carolina
Since 1986, the Public School Forum of North Carolina has been an indispensable and nonpartisan champion of better schools and the most trusted source in the state for research and analysis on vital education issues. We bring together leaders from business, education and government to study education issues, develop ideas, seek consensus, and ultimately inform and shape education policy. We do that through research, policy work, innovative programs, advocacy, and continuing education for educators and policymakers. Follow us on Twitter @theNCForum and visit our website at https://www.ncforum.org/
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