SEL Awardee

Ingrid Harrald

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Soldotna, AK
“Over the past year, a small group of trauma-informed and inspired counselors from Kenai Peninsula Borough School District have met to collaborate and support the implementation of SEL in their schools. These counselors service schools with at-risk populations, small rural schools, and schools with high poverty rates. This small but mighty group of counselors plans to build off this loose meeting structure and create a formal coalition aimed at increasing efforts in our district to focus on resilience, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma-informed practices. Last year the Alaska Department of Education released its statewide Framework for Alaska Trauma-Engaged Practice in Alaska that outlines a schoolwide trauma engaged approach to improve academic outcomes and well-being for students. This resource is designed for use by school/community teams seeking to make schools a place of positive transformation and significant learning. This framework is the perfect guiding document for change on a schoolwide, districtwide, and statewide level. With support from the NoVo EPC grant, we will transform this newly-released framework from a vision to a lived reality in high priority schools across our district. We believe a strong foundation for bringing this framework to life starts with this small group of guiding people. We hope to create equity among these rural, remote, and urban school environments. Our goal is to increase student mental health access through a broad spectrum of educational and health-enhancing services.”
Tags: Culturally Responsive Approaches, Curriculum, District, High School, Identity Development, Indigenous Communities, LGBTQI+, Middle School, Rural, Students Affected by Suspensions, Students with Disabilities, Teacher Leadership, Traditional Public School, Trauma-Informed