The School of Hope The Journey from Trauma and Anxiety to Achievement, Happiness, and Resilience

"There is a mental health crisis happening right now. Teachers are leaving the profession in vast quantities and students are struggling to stay engaged. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, major depression was on the rise in the U.S. for teens and adolescents. School counselors and school psychologists are overwhelmed, and teachers are not trained to help assist their students or colleagues with their mental well-being. This book fills the void. It is not an SEL curriculum, but instead provides tools and strategies that can be woven into classrooms and schools to foster mental wellness, resilience, and hope. By incorporating simple practices, educators can provide much-needed support to retain teachers, help students stay engaged, and give people resources to care for themselves. Organized around H.O.P.E (Healing, Optimism, Purpose, Empathy) themes, the book provides quick practical strategies educators and leaders can use daily to help students feel secure, build relationships, and improve academic outcomes. Current trauma-informed books offer coping mechanisms but not tools to go beyond the healing. In other words, they offer suggestions for alleviating the effects of trauma instead of providing tools to help people heal and restore people to their original state of well-being. The School of Hope features the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ) and Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) so that educators will be able to get a hope baseline to track and use with students and staff and know when to shift from trauma-informed care to practices that increase hope and mental wellness"--