Blog Archives

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

12/16/2016

Name: Lulu Gonzalez
Position: All In! Program Assistant

What led you to your current position?
An interest in public health and non-profit work.

Favorite Quote: "Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul" - Mark Twain

What does your average day look like?
An average day involves supporting our AIS's and other providers with IEP compliance issues, visiting our partnership schools to spend time with our school staff, and loads and loads of typing on my computer.

Why do you do this work?
For the kids that we work with and the families they go home to. It's important work that will leave a tangible impact on education.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
An increase in the amount of schools we partner with!

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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: The Mission Preparatory School

12/15/2016

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The Mission Preparatory School opened in August 2011 with 50 Kindergarten students. Each year, we enroll a new cohort of 50 Kindergarteners and will continue expanding through 8th grade. At full capacity, Mission Prep will serve a maximum of 450 students in grades K-8.

The Mission Preparatory School addresses the need for a free, public, college-preparatory school that provides a rigorous, high-quality K-8 education in San Francisco. With an uncompromising commitment to upholding the highest academic and behavioral expectations for all children, Mission Prep is designed specifically to address the learning needs of an underserved and underperforming student population. Through an intensive focus on literacy and the implementation of strategic academic support structures, we ensure mastery of essential skills and content knowledge, accelerate student achievement, support student acceptance to top high schools, and lay the foundation for every child to excel in and graduate from college.

Blog post written by:
Celina Zins, Director of School Partnerships

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DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

12/15/2016

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It is inevitable that difficult conversations will occur. There are some key strategies to support effective resolution of these challenging situations. The book, Difficult Conversations; Discussing What Matters Most by Stone, Patton and Heen supports readers in preparing to have challenging conversations in a way that avoids blame and promotes understanding. Key aspects to explore when engaging in difficult conversations:

The links below provide a road map to these conversations along with a worksheet to prepare for having a difficult conversation.

Blog post written by:
Celina Zins, Director of School Partnerships

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STAFF HIGHLIGHT

12/8/2016

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Name: Mark Thibedeau
Position: Clinical Supervisor

What led you to your current position?
I’ve been in the agency for over 11 years. I started as a Mental Health Assistant at Longwood Elementary School in Hayward for 2 years. This experience and the mentorship I received from my supervisor encouraged me to pursue a MSW degree in order to become a clinician. I then came back to Seneca and served as a clinician at Elmhurst Community Prep/Alliance Academy for 8 years. Towards the end of my time as a clinician I supervised an intern which gave me the foundational experience and desire to become a full time supervisor. All of these experiences built on each other to lead me to this point in my career.

Fun Fact/Quote: I have two quotes that I live by: “Keep Showing Up” and “Discipline is the Bridge between Thought and Accomplishment”

What does your average day look like?
I get up at 4:30 to read and drink tea. When I know the day ahead is going to be fully scheduled, I review documents during this time but as much as possible I try to preserve this period for reading things that I find enriching. By 5:30 I’m out the door to exercise. I’ve followed this routine for a long time and find that starting my day practicing self-care this way prepares me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually for whatever challenges present themselves throughout the day. Between 6:30 and 8 AM it’s a juggling act with my wife of getting ourselves ready for work, getting our daughters ready for school and dropping them off. I try to find self-nourishment during this time by being playful with my children through all of the morning routines. When I’m right with my family, I feel better about myself, which I take with me to work.

My workday consists primarily of going to school sites to provide supervision to clinicians. This could be individual and/or group supervision as well as could be my own. I balance this part of my job with finding time to approve documents, monitor productivity, go to meetings regarding changes in our program and attend to side projects I’ve been asked to do such as conducting an ERMHS assessment, providing trainings for our school partnerships, doing focus groups with schools who are developing partnerships with All-In and/or providing direct service to clients and families. I also consult with clinicians with any questions regarding documentation, serving clients and families or crisis support. The level of need varies. Somedays there are no calls, other days there are many. If a clinician is supporting a crisis beyond normal school hours, I make sure to be available to support them until the crisis is resolved.

After work, I’m home with my family. I find this time together restorative as we reconnect after a full day of work, school, preschool, etc. Once we go through all of my daughters’ bedtime routines, I’m not far behind and usually go to bed by 9 PM.

Why do you do this work?
The people I’ve come to know through this work, whether it is clients, their families, co-workers, school partners, has had a tremendously positive impact on my life. Through sharing their stories with me, my clients and their families have given me a deeper understanding of what it means to live with pain on a daily basis and still find ways to maintain hope, have the courage to try to heal and move forward. As a result, I’m a much more open hearted person. This is a gift they have given me that I apply to my role as a supervisor as well as a husband and father.

My co-workers, past and present, have helped me maintain hope for myself during moments when I doubted my abilities to be effective in this field. These are hard questions to face and having co-workers willing to support me helps me continue to grow. They are a big reason why I’m still here. I have great admiration for the clinicians I supervise. Their courage to confront the most challenging and vulnerability inducing parts of this work in order to better serve their clients inspires me to give them my best.

Finally, as a white male in this country, this work expands my understanding of privilege and how to use it without doing harm. I find this very important in my relationships with the clinicians I supervise, in my role in the agency and as I father raising two white daughters. I also feel better equipped to contribute to courageous conversations both inside and outside of work. I’m grateful that my understanding of privilege continues to grow and I know that I wouldn’t have this understanding if not for the people I’ve met in this work.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
I hope that our program continues to find ways to enhance family’s involvement so that treatment is more family driven. Pretty much every reason why a client is in our program connects with some source of pain in their family relationships. As much as we focus on building our clients’ relationships with us, I believe it is of greater importance that we focus on strengthening our clients’ relationships with their family members, in addition to connecting families to the resources they need. As families heal, I envision we would see our clients achieve the behavioral, relational and academic progress that everyone desires. This is hard work but more importantly, it can be done.

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STAFF GUEST POST: Determining Tier 1 & 2 Needs Through a School-Wide Assessment

12/8/2016

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Hello blog readers. I’m a clinical supervisor for All-In, and have been with Seneca for over seven years working primarily in school based programs. If you’ve ever been curious about how schools determine the need for Tier 1/2 services, this is it! I recently had a unique experience of participating in a school wide assessment for Summit Shasta, a charter high school in Daly City, with the goal of assessing the social emotional needs of their students and identifying the most appropriate services to address these needs. It was a new experience for me, and I was grateful to have one of my favorite co-workers by my side, the legendary Laura Lin.

The first step was to administer a survey to the entire student body to gather information about their experiences. The survey covered four main topics: adverse experiences, risk behavior, social emotional impact, and school experiences. The questions on the survey pulled largely from existing, well-established tools including:

•   Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) screener
•   Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey
•   California Healthy Kids Core Module
•   2015 National Youth Risk Behavior
•   Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
•   School Climate Assessment Instrument

The second step was to administer a similar survey to the teachers and staff members of Summit Shasta. This survey asked for their perception of the level at which students in their community have had specific adverse experiences, demonstrated certain risk behaviors, and experienced different social emotional challenges.

After the surveys were complete, Summit Shasta leaders identified a diverse group of students to participate in focus groups to discuss the findings. The survey results included the percentage of students at the school who reported physical or emotional abuse, self-harming behaviors, suicidal ideation and attempts, sexual harassment, being bullied for their race, ethnicity, or national origin, and witnessing violence in their communities. Laura and I met with two separate groups, gave them time to review the percentages and encouraged the students to reflect on whether the results rang true to them, what is already in place to address these issues, and what else could be done to support students. We were impressed by the student’s resilience, sense of community, and willingness to share vulnerable feelings with us. They advocated for their needs in creative ways, supported one another in the room when discussing difficult topics, and openly discussed diversity issues effecting their community.

Laura and I then returned a couple weeks later to meet with the teachers and staff to share the information we gathered from the students. What an incredible group of leaders and educators! We shared with them the results of the student surveys along with the teacher surveys and facilitated a discussion about ways to support students. The group reflected on student needs with compassion and curiosity while brainstorming ways to intervene and identifying areas in which they want more support or training. It was clear that the school deeply values and prioritizes the well-being of their students.

Based on the information gathered from all the meetings and discussions, Laura Lin and Jenny Ventura wrote up a detailed report summarizing the findings and proposing a variety of ways to address the identified needs including professional development for teachers, drop-in services for students, parent outreach and psycho education, enhancing existing systems, and empowering students. Robin Detterman and I presented these recommendations to a couple of the school leaders, who will later determine which supports or interventions they would like to pursue.

This was an informative experience for me, and an interesting way to learn about other ways we support schools implementing Tier 1 and 2 services. It was inspiring to meet and spend time with the wonderful staff at Summit Shasta who are committed to improving the lives of their students. And it was also a great reminder of how important it is to raise awareness of mental health issues and find ways to address them that are not stigmatizing.

Thanks for reading!

Blog post written by:
Rachel Murray, Clinical Supervisor

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SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: ARISE High School

12/8/2016

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The mission of ARISE High School is to empower ourselves with the skills, knowledge, and agency to become highly educated, humanizing, critically conscious, intellectual, and reflective leaders in our community. We nurture, train, and discipline our school community to engage in a continuous practice of developing mind, heart, and body towards a vision where we actively rise up. Agency and self-determination drive our struggle to improve our own material and social conditions towards a more healthy, equitable, and just society.

The values at ARISE embody the mission and vision. They frame all of the work that we do in our community.

With the new partnership at ARISE, we are striving to continue to push ARISE students to RISE UP! in the area of the academics & behaviors, as well as social-emotionally. We have made great progress this year thus far and are look to forward to continue to generate change at ARISE.

Blog post written by:
Mercedes Hudson, UE Coach

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NEW REPORT PROPOSES CHANGES TO SPECIAL EDUCATION FINANCE IN CALIFORNIA

12/8/2016

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Last week, the Public Policy Institute of California released a new report titled, Special Education Finance and California. Building on the work done by the 2015 State Special Education Task Force, the report focused on recommendations for creating a more seamless state-wise system of education – and has some important implications for Unconditional Education.

Before I get into the specifics of these findings, it’s important to know a bit about the recent history of education finance. In 2013, California largely revised the way funding is allocated to schools with the enactment of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Prior to the development of this formula, schools managed 50+ education funding streams focused on particular student demographic (such as foster youth, English language learners) or particular initiatives (such as K-3 class size reduction), otherwise known as categorical funds. Categorical funds were created to ensure that certain student groups who are traditionally underserved receive targeted supports. However, over time the number of categorical funds ballooned, and the categorical fund model created a siloed, piecemealed system that was both difficult to manage and often prevented school leaders from responding to the specific needs of their own school communities. The shift to LCFF consolidated most state categorical funds into a block grant where funding is allocated to schools and districts based on certain demographic criteria. This new formula ensures that schools with more needy students receive more resources and that all schools are required to meet certain accountability standards within the plans they develop to ensure the achievement of previously marginalized groups.

Due to the complexities of Special Education funding and the related federal mandates special education as a categorical fund was not collapsed into LCFF. However, now that LCFF has had several years of successful implementation, the report reasons that special education funds can and should be combined into the LCFF formula to create a more coherent system of funding. After all, can we really have a unified system if we still have 10% of our students in a categorical system? The blending of these funds would further supports the tenet that all students should be seen as general education students first, with special education services providing supplementary supports.
In addition, the report authors argued that this funding shift would increase schools’ ability to provide prevention and early intervention, rather than the current wait-to-fail model incentivized by the existing special education system. Schools would maintain their responsibility for meeting requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, thus preserving an important civil rights protection for students with disabilities, but funding would be more flexible such that school leaders could more strategically invest in Tier Two supports for students.

On the whole, the inclusion of special education in LCFF would place fewer restrictions on special education dollars. Thus, school leaders would have the flexibility they need to create a unified and coherent system aimed at meeting the needs of their own students. Check out a full copy of the report here to read more about how this change would affect California’s schools.

Blog post written by:
Robin Detterman, Executive Director of School Partnerships

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Welcome

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: The Mission Preparatory School

DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

STAFF GUEST POST: Determining Tier 1 & 2 Needs Through a School-Wide Assessment

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: ARISE High School

NEW REPORT PROPOSES CHANGES TO SPECIAL EDUCATION FINANCE IN CALIFORNIA

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