Mental Health and Wellness
Mental Health Literacy: Encompasses the knowledge, belief and abilities that enable the recognition, management or prevention of mental health challenges and supports personal well-being.
Social Emotional Learning: Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an integral part of the education system, human and social development. SEL is the process through which all individuals acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and dispositions to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions. SEL advances educational equity.
Culturally Responsive Practices: Cultural humility is a process of self-reflection to help understand personal and systemically conditioned biases and to develop respectful processes and relationships. It involves humbly acknowledging oneself as a life-long learner when it comes to understanding another’s experience. Cultural safety is about fostering a climate where Indigenous Peoples and peoples of all cultures are recognized, respected, and reflected without discrimination. School connectedness is impacted by implicit bias and privilege, expectations, sense of belonging and identity, cultural relevance, Indigenous worldviews and perspectives, connection to communities, cultures of reflective practice, and many other factors.
Trauma Informed Practices: Trauma-informed practice means integrating an understanding of past and current experiences of violence and trauma into all aspects of school life. The goal of trauma-informed systems is to avoid re-traumatizing students and adults and support safety, choice, and control to promote healing. Trauma-Informed Practices support all students and adults whether they have experienced trauma or not. Traumatic experiences are always stressful, but stressors are not always traumatic. Trauma is not expressed the same way for all students nor are the experiences that have led to trauma.
