Framework

The Healing-Centered Framework

This framework is designed to articulate what being a school district that centers healing and wellness in its work will truly require. The information we are providing aims to bring more clarity to what being “healing-centered” looks and feels like for the different members of our CPS community in different roles. It also serves to outline five different components of a healing-centered district that apply, in unique ways, to each stakeholder.

Stakeholders

Four key pillars of the CPS community in our roles as healers and as agents of our own healing.

Components

Five core dimensions of healing in our district that apply to each stakeholder group.

Equity

A principle woven throughout the framework to ensure we all have access to the healing that meets our unique needs and goals.

Stakeholder Goals

To achieve our healing-centered vision, we recognize that we must engage all members of our communities.
We have defined goals for four different stakeholder groups:
  • Teachers consoling each other

    Schools and school staff as healers

    Ensure that all CPS schools are safe, supportive environments where all staff actively promote mental wellness while rallying around students who have been most impacted by trauma and could benefit from more targeted supports.

  • Woman taking deep breath

    All staff as agents of their own healing and wellness

    Ensure that all staff have the necessary resources to actively support their own wellness and feel empowered to do so, with strong consistent support from all levels of leadership.
  • Family hugging each other

    Families and communities as agents of their own healing and wellness

    Ensure families, caregivers, and community members are valued participants in the healing process for CPS students and advocate for the supports they might need to be well for themselves and for their students.
  • Group of teens on a walk

    Students as agents of their own healing and wellness

    Ensure that every student plays an active role in their own wellness, building the skills to live healthy lives while accessing the necessary resources for healing.

Components of Change

To achieve our healing-centered vision, CPS also recognizes that we must employ a holistic strategy. Therefore, we are focused on driving change through five different components:

Education & Awareness

How staff, students, families, caregivers, and communities learn about trauma and mental wellness in order to promote healing

Textbook icon

Skills & Strategies

The strategies that teachers/staff, students, families, caregivers, and communities develop to cope with stressors, manage/prevent trauma, and promote wellness

Flower Icon

Culture & Climate

How the physical environment and the culture of a school promote wellness and belonging for students, staff, families, caregivers, and communities

3 Team Members icon

Resources

The combination of people, programs, and other resources (both internal to CPS and external) that are needed to prevent and address trauma and promote healing

Heart on a book icon

Crisis Support

How the CPS community (including district leaders, staff, students, families, caregivers, and community partners) provides support and promotes recovery when members of this community experience a potentially trauma-inducing crisis

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Adults working with a child

Our Journey

Our journey to becoming a healing-centered district will require CPS to launch initiatives across each of these components, prioritizing the individuals most impacted by trauma. The Appendix to this document includes examples of what these components might look like in our schools and district as a whole, for each of the four stakeholder groups.

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Blue Notebook

View the Full Framework

For more information, including examples of what these components might look like for each stakeholder group, view the full Healing-Centered Framework.

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