Establishing a trauma-informed and mental health research collaborative

This chapter will describe the formation of a research and professional development (PD) collaborative designed by a group of interdisciplinary university faculty and a district-level administrator of a local partner school district to meet the challenge of providing support for mental health challenges among local youth. Through this chapter, we detail how the collaboration between university faculty and school district personnel formed. We present the goals of the collaborative to support the needs of our community as well as the initial response to our collaborative from participants in the community engaging in the professional development content. And, finally, we present future steps in creating and sustaining an impactful source for research and trainings related to trauma-informed practices (TIP) for local educational professionals and community members Like many, our local community is considered part of a low socioeconomic status (SES) region, characterized by high rates of poverty, low educational attainment, and high levels of racial/ethnic diversity. Also, like other similar communities, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental health issues and learning disparities within the community (Sau Man Ng & Sui Ling Ng, 2022). Given these factors and recognizing the implications of poverty on citizens' well-being and those of young persons in particular (Vadivel et al., 2023), there is a woeful shortage of resources available to support these needs. In particular, schools and other youth-serving organizations are experiencing shortages of trained trauma-informed teachers and staff, and mental health professionals (Rahimi et al., 2021; Strobach, 2023). Ultimately within our local community, increasing the number of trained trauma-informed teachers and other professionals to enable local youth to get the support they need is critical. This chapter will describe the formation of a research and professional development (PD) collaborative designed by a group of interdisciplinary university faculty and a district-level administrator of a local partner school district to meet this challenge. Through this chapter, we detail how the collaborative between university faculty and school district personnel formed. We present the goals of the collaborative to support the needs of our community as well as the initial response to our collaborative from participants in the community engaging in the professional development content. And, finally, we present future steps in creating and sustaining an impactful source for research and trainings related to trauma-informed practices (TIP) for local educational professionals and community members.