Key leadership sets the tone, creates expectations, offers ongoing support to staff, and participates fully themselves.
Leadership sets the tone for a shift to strength-based, trauma-sensitive communication.
Leadership stands behind the implementation as a strategy that takes an initial investment of time but that pays off in critical ways. They make it clear that our settings are excellent at preparing for and reacting to emergencies; and they recognize that in any given moment it may feel more efficient to problem-solve. However, they reinforce that:
Leadership addresses head-on the resistance to any new initiative. People are fatigued and spread too thin. They resist new initiatives that are the flavor-of-the month. They also resent anything that takes more time. To address this resistance, leadership can reinforce:
A champion model is implemented.
Implementation of this toolkit offers youth-serving staff the opportunity to gain expertise in a wide variety of ideas and concepts.
The champion model offers leadership to a team of individuals who can then divide the content among themselves. Champions take responsibility to gain facilitator-level expertise for a section of content for which they become the teachers and reinforcers.
Ideally, the champion teams are interdisciplinary, and inclusive of leadership and front-line staff.
Relevant content is chosen and prioritized
The leadership and champion teams determine what content is most needed to affect cultural change and support effective communication and/or staff well-being and professionalism.
The team does not need to start from scratch as they consider most relevant topics. There are several ways in which the Reaching Teens editorial team has simplified the process.
Content is reinforced
Consistent with adult-learning theory, learning occurs best when connected to cases and discussion or practice is encouraged. Cases can be discussed from the framework, “How can we handle this through a strength-based lens per Reaching Teens?”
In daily personal sign-offs or in huddles, discussions can be presented in a strengths-based way, ideally referencing the “reaching teens” or “strength-based” philosophy. This type of reinforcement will take no added time and may contribute to better satisfaction and effectiveness.
For example, we can discuss all cases choosing not to focus only on the stated concern. The following is a suggested format:
Critical topics, such as the Language of Resilience, that are presented in longer format also have 10-minute booster sessions added on to other meetings.
Staff are given opportunities in meetings to share “success stories” achieved through incorporating strengths-based communication into their practices.
There is orientation material that all new hires go through to set the tone for working in a strengths-based, trauma-sensitive culture.
The champion teams determine which topic areas serve as orientation to the unit regardless of discipline.
Each setting can determine what is included in orientation materials.
For example:
We recommend the following chapters for all staff as orientation to our practices. They can be read by individuals who engage with the material in a self-reflective manner. Ultimately, these topics should be revisited in ongoing professional development sessions with their colleagues.
People are incentivized to participate.
We’d hope that the greatest incentives are building new skill-sets.
We also hope that all the points made by leadership team mentioned in the first section serve as incentives!
Up to 95 CEUs are available to MDs, RNs, PAs, Social Workers, and Counselors. Other settings have developed CEUs or certificates to meet their professional or setting standards.
Visit the AAP.org website to test-ride these functionalities
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