This week I’m highlighting one of our Education For Change partnership schools - Achieve Academy in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. Clinical Intervention Specialist Marianne Clark AMFT, who is also our featured staff in the blog this week, has engaged in an innovative practice at Achieve that expands her reach as a single Seneca clinician on her campus. Through building the capacity of others, Marianne and her collaborative Achieve team have been able to serve dozens of students through tier 2 Social Skills groups during the first cycle of service this year; truly an example of creatively bringing the mission of Unconditional Education to her campus.
The project began with an awareness of her limitations as a single provider at the school. Using our Social Emotional Screener tool, Marianne gathered emotional and behavioral data on every student at Achieve and was able to see trends and needs across grades, classrooms, and individual students. But how could Marianne find the time in her week to provide the myriad of group services the students there would most benefit from? Her answer: she couldn’t do it on her own. Marianne realized she needed more adults to provide groups and that she could share her expertise with them as a coach and mentor. She put together a presentation on the basics of running a group, and solicited interest from her school administration and staff community.
She then met with a group of interested EFC staff which included PE teachers, assistant principals, and other staff on site to provide them with a training on the basics of running a social skills group. Sitting down with each adult individually, Marianne was able to learn more about what types of issues, students and age groups they were most excited to work with. She was intentional around supporting them to feel more connected to the work by getting to know what their values were and what they were most interested in.
Next, Marianne revisited the data from her Social Emotional Screeners. She made sure to assign facilitators to grade levels and group topics that would resonate for them. Tailoring activities to the topics of the groups was another way that Marianne supported the adults with their new initiative. And they were off!!
Midway through the first group cycle, Marianne brought her team of adults together to provide problem-solving, consultation and connection. She also started getting input from the team on what they’d like to do for their next cycle in order to keep the momentum going on their new tier 2 initiative.
She then met with a group of interested EFC staff which included PE teachers, assistant principals, and other staff on site to provide them with a training on the basics of running a social skills group. Sitting down with each adult individually, Marianne was able to learn more about what types of issues, students and age groups they were most excited to work with. She was intentional around supporting them to feel more connected to the work by getting to know what their values were and what they were most interested in.
Next, Marianne revisited the data from her Social Emotional Screeners. She made sure to assign facilitators to grade levels and group topics that would resonate for them. Tailoring activities to the topics of the groups was another way that Marianne supported the adults with their new initiative. And they were off!!
Midway through the first group cycle, Marianne brought her team of adults together to provide problem-solving, consultation and connection. She also started getting input from the team on what they’d like to do for their next cycle in order to keep the momentum going on their new tier 2 initiative.
Primary and Secondary benefits:
In addition to providing social skills groups to 100 students in the first 6 weeks, other benefits of Marianne’s approach include:
What’s next?
Marianne is just getting going with the progress monitoring and outcomes measurements that we use for tier 2 groups. This will include gathering SDQ and collecting Social Emotional Screener data toward the end of the year to see if students involved in the tier 2 cycles showed improvement in any of their challenge areas. We’re also eager to hear how the facilitators feel after their first year of providing social skills groups with Marianne’s counsel. So far, this has been a big win for the students and school community of Achieve!
What about at your school? Is there an opportunity to build the capacity of others and leverage your own expertise to have a broader reach while building campus connections? Leave a comment below if you have thoughts or questions about how you might do this at your school.
In addition to providing social skills groups to 100 students in the first 6 weeks, other benefits of Marianne’s approach include:
- Increasing the number of adults these students have a close connection to on campus
- Increasing the diversity of social skill group facilitators
- Increasing the capacity of the school to meet emerging needs of students without requiring new funding and without hiring more specialists
- Creating a broader supportive network for struggling students during free time such as lunch and recess
What’s next?
Marianne is just getting going with the progress monitoring and outcomes measurements that we use for tier 2 groups. This will include gathering SDQ and collecting Social Emotional Screener data toward the end of the year to see if students involved in the tier 2 cycles showed improvement in any of their challenge areas. We’re also eager to hear how the facilitators feel after their first year of providing social skills groups with Marianne’s counsel. So far, this has been a big win for the students and school community of Achieve!
What about at your school? Is there an opportunity to build the capacity of others and leverage your own expertise to have a broader reach while building campus connections? Leave a comment below if you have thoughts or questions about how you might do this at your school.
Blog Post Written By: Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention Services
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