Exploring New Ways to Support Wellness
The conference includes training and support for implementation of interventions to support students in the classroom and strategies for creating safe, supportive learning environments where all children feel a sense of belonging. It will also underscore our investment in the wellness of our educators and staff, who work tirelessly to provide our children with the education they need to be successful in college, career, and civic life.
Event Details
- When: June 18th, 2025
- Where: Sarah Goode High School, 7651 S Homan Ave, Chicago, IL 60652
- Who: All CPS staff are welcome to attend.
- Questions: contact OSEL at healingcentered@cps.edu.
- Explore: Before the conference, learn about by exploring the Healing-Centered website or the full Framework [ English | Spanish ]
- Registration: If you plan to attend, please do so through Sched
Creating a Healing-Centered School District
In 2019, CPS embarked on a long-term effort to transform itself into a healing-centered District, recognizing that we need to ensure collective wellness for all students, staff, families, caregivers, and communities. The Healing-Centered Framework highlights the opportunity to provide school communities with restorative and trauma-sensitive supports.
By building a healing-centered district, CPS will increase collective healing and wellness for staff, students, families, caregivers, and community. Through this effort, we are making an unprecedented investment in the wellness of our people.
Creating a Healing-Centered School District
In 2019, CPS embarked on a long-term effort to transform itself into a healing-centered District, recognizing that we need to ensure collective wellness for all students, staff, families, caregivers, and communities. The Healing-Centered Framework highlights the opportunity to provide school communities with restorative and trauma-sensitive supports.
By building a healing-centered district, CPS will increase collective healing and wellness for staff, students, families, caregivers, and community. Through this effort, we are making an unprecedented investment in the wellness of our people.
Toward Collective Wellness
The term “healing-centered” is an alternative to a “trauma-informed” orientation. A healing-centered approach to addressing trauma requires a different question that moves beyond “what happened to you” to “what’s right with you.” In a healing-centered orientation, individuals exposed to trauma are agents in their own well-being rather than victims of traumatic events. Commitment to our collective wellness is the foundation for our vision of a healing-centered district. The goal is to ensure collective wellness for CPS students, staff, families, caregivers, and communities. Equity is at the heart of the CPS vision, as we seek to give all students the support and opportunities they need to be successful in college, career, and civic life.
Our Vision
To transform CPS into Healing-Centered school district, which means:
- Trauma-engaged: Not only understanding and being aware of trauma, but proactively promoting collective healing as a whole school system while responsively meeting the individual wellness needs of each student.
- Culturally-responsive: Centering equity in healing by promoting a liberatory consciousness, recognizing a broad understanding of trauma (including historic and generational trauma),and affirming all cultures in the healing process.
Our Vision
To transform CPS into Healing-Centered school district, which means:
- Trauma-engaged: Not only understanding and being aware of trauma, but proactively promoting collective healing as a whole school system while responsively meeting the individual wellness needs of each student.
- Culturally-responsive: Centering equity in healing by promoting a liberatory consciousness, recognizing a broad understanding of trauma (including historic and generational trauma),and affirming all cultures in the healing process.
Our Core Values
The Healing-Centered Conference includes speakers and workshops focused on fostering community, connectedness, and well-being through a commitment to Collective Healing, Asset-based Approaches, Relationships, and Environment (C.A.R.E.). The core values of C.A.R.E. shape the work of CPS in implementing a healing-centered approach to the District.
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Collective Healing
The work starts with recognizing that everyone is impacted by trauma, and every individual has a role in the healing experience for themselves, for others and for communities. -
Asset-Based Approaches
This work must be approached from a perspective of promise and not prognosis. The goal is to transition from trauma-informed to trauma-engaged, asking not what is wrong with you but what is right with you. To assist individuals with seeing beyond what is in front of them, they must be aware of the root causes of the behavior and the root causes of the trauma. -
Relationships
The ability for students to have authentic connection with supportive adults is critical for healing. We must invest in relationships early and often. Adults must be present, empathetic and willing to be open and honest in an effort to create an environment where youth feel safe to share. To do this, adults must be active in their own healing and learning process. -
Environment
Schools must be welcoming environments for every child, affording them the opportunity to see positive representations of themselves and the space to see beyond their current circumstances to their possibilities. By igniting dreams and aspirations, our schools will promote student growth and positive identity development in the journey to achieve them.