TRAVERSE CITY – A task force that has been meeting since October 2022 is closing in on specific ways to ensure safer kids and schools – and they’re going to share their findings with the community Thursday.
The Safer Kids, Safer Schools Task Force is inviting the Traverse City Area Public Schools community to attend this session at 7 p.m. in the Traverse City West Senior High School library when the group will share next steps.
One action they’re taking is partnering with the Northwest Community Health Innovation Region’s “Behavioral Health Initiative” a move that fits with the task force plan to ensure “every child in the community has at least one positive connection.”
“Establishing strong, positive relationships with students is a common theme identified in our report, and we are fortunate to have the expertise of the CHIR Behavioral Health Initiative team supporting this project.” said Jay Berger, co-founder of the task force.
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Task force co-founder Kathleen Guy said they’ll be a valuable resource in providing structure so that the task force can focus on getting things done.
“It makes perfect sense. They’re a backbone organization, engaged in all helps and supports; physically, mentally, all sorts of health issues.” Guy said, “We can connect to their star, and work with them because they have all the supports to guide each action team.”
Berger says he and Guy were inspired to assemble the team after the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, when 19 elementary students and two teachers were killed, and 17 others were injured.
Later that year, Berger and Guy gathered 30 community members together and started having periodic meetings to discuss concerns from parents, teachers, and students, as well as collect data to help their cause.
“It’s clear that people want to help,” Guy said. “They just need to be led to the ways that they can be most helpful.
“There are lots of ways you can plug in. Once we make those better known, I think people will step up. But we also have to coordinate that effort so that no one gets overwhelmed. We want to funnel our volunteers into the most meaningful places for the kids.”
At the November 2023 TCAPS board meeting, the task force presented its report, which may be viewed at their website: www.sksstc.com.
The report identified several goals aimed at increasing the safety of school buildings, and incorporated the community input that had been gathered at previous meetings.
Recommended objectives highlighted in the report included: Creating a caring and connected school community; expanding mental health supports and programs within schools; promoting community awareness of risk and appropriate responses; engaging and empowering youth; and enhancing early intervention efforts.
Guy said that it’s also important to let students in the community know that they’re not alone in whatever challenges they encounter. “We know that kids and families thrive when they know that people care about them and they’re connected to their communities.
“This is much more likely to happen when the community makes it clear that they value all children, and make it easier for them and their families to find support.”
Berger reiterates that an objective of the organization is to let the community know that they’re not asking for more from the schools, but rather asking for community support to do its part to protect both kids and educators.
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step,” Berger said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, “The task force’s report is a roadmap with some commonsense steps we can take, but school security at its core is a communitywide effort.
“It will take all of us working together to implement these recommendations and to truly make schools safer places for students.”
Guy added: “Everybody can do something. You don’t have to make a lifetime commitment, you don’t even have to make a monthly commitment. But you can do something.
“Everything that we can do as adults in this community to demonstrate that we care about these kids and their families is a step in the right direction.”