Lisa V. Blitz

Addressing Racism in the Organization: The Role of White Racial Affinity Groups in Creating Change

Racial affinity group meetings, or caucuses, can be effective tools for human service agencies to address cultural responsiveness or shift their organizational paradigm toward antiracism. The development of such caucuses is seldom undertaken, however, often due to concerns about resources and the difficulty of envisioning the concrete benefits. This article describes the formation, implementation, and functioning of a White antiracism caucus, facilitated by the authors, in a large social service agency. Organizational context, group development, and attempts to address institutional racism are presented. Issues of professional identity development, the reification of White privilege, and internal systems of accountability are described.

Trauma-Informed Methods to Enhance School-Based Bullying Prevention Initiatives: An Emerging Model

This article describes an emerging model of trauma-informed supports for school climate and bullying prevention developed through a social research design and development approach. Student survey data were used to inform program design. The study was conducted as part of baseline data collection for a federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant awarded to a cooperative group of 10 school districts in upstate New York. A local university partnered with the cooperative to design an innovative program model to enhance bullying prevention and provide social-emotional and mental health supports for students. In addition to descriptive data, findings from multinomial logistic regression analyses are provided to understand the relative influence of the independent variables on the students’ report of bully–aggressor behavior and victim–bystander experiences.

Teaching Macro Social Work through Experiential Learning: Student Reflections on Lessons Learned in Building School-Community Partnerships

A faculty-led experiential learning project was implemented with Master of Social Work students at their field placement sites to teach macro practice skills and research methods. As part of a grant-funded school-university partnership, MSW students were placed in school social work field placements, where their practice focused on individual and small group interventions with youth. Ten MSW students participated in asset-based collective family engagement in diverse, low-income communities, using community organizing skills and community-based participatory research methods. To examine student learning, a pilot study gathered narrative data from seven of the students and three supervisors. MSW students’ learning from the project is discussed in the context of CSWE’s 2015 EPAS competencies. Participation in the experiential/service-learning project supported the ability of the MSW students to build a sense of themselves as professionals bringing value to the community, enhanced their understanding of cultural diversity and family engagement, and provided context for vulnerable students’ struggles in school and the families’ difficulties with school engagement. This project illustrates the potential of school-university partnerships involving MSW field students to help bridge the gaps in school-family partnerships, particularly in diverse and low-income communities, and highlights areas where different teaching methods can be used to reinforce competencies learned.

Bringing Sanctuary to School Assessing School Climate as a Foundation for Culturally Responsive Trauma-Informed Approaches for Urban Schools

Decades of federal economic policies that have concentrated poverty into isolated communities have devastated urban education, and expose youth and families to high stress and trauma. Disproportionately negative outcomes for students of color and those who are economically disadvantaged can be understood as manifestations of negative racial school climate and inadequate responsiveness to students’ trauma. As part of a school–university partnership to inform culturally responsive trauma-informed pedagogy, this study assessed the climate of a racially diverse high-poverty elementary school. Findings explored the application of the trauma-informed Sanctuary Model to address students’ trauma and a social justice response for urban education.

From permission to partnership: Participatory research to engage school personnel in systems change

ABSTRACT Data collected from teachers in a racially diverse, high-poverty high school were used to inform the initial steps in developing a school–university partnership to create a culturally responsive trauma-informed community school. The project utilized community-based participatory research to explore sensitive areas of school system functioning. School–university partnerships and community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects offer important opportunities for innovation, but the process of how these relationships evolve is not often described. Thus, the process of the research as it unfolded over the course of a school year and lessons learned are described along with findings. Findings include teachers’ perceptions of the impact of trauma on students, their own stress level and self-efficacy in addressing students’ social-emotional and behavioral concerns, and the role of race in the teachers’ perceptions.