HMS Group Toki Middle School's first Highly Mobile Students Support Group Gina Aguglia, MSW 1
Why a support group?...... + Panel influence + High number of HMS at Toki + Sense of belonging/ not alone + Access to information + Place to feel safe + Sense of consistency + Anoutlet PANEL INFLUENCE -Many of the students who were part of the student panel said they would have liked to have a support group for homeless and/or highly mobile students such as themselves while in middle school because it would have helped them realize that they were not alone and that there were other kids going through the same stuff they were. Most students don t know who is homeless and who isn t. It is not something talked about among friend groups and is seem as an serious embarrassment to many students. HMS at Toki -We currently have 22 reported homeless students at Toki who are identified as TEP. This is just students who have been identified. Many students and families are homeless or highly mobile and don t realize they can receive assistance from their school if they contact the social worker about their housing status. SENSE OF BELONGING/NOT ALONE -Reiterate that a support group will allow students to realize there are others like them at Toki who are experiencing the same housing issues. A place to share commonalities, strategies for dealing, become connected with a group of people, learn ways to improve social-emotional skills/friendship skills despite adversity. ACCESS TO INFO -Provide students with shelter info -Provide students with resources -Provide students with info/numbers for themselves and their families 2
SAFE -Place to feel safe while at school. -By age 12, 83% of homeless children have been exposed to at least one serious violent event (Bassuk,EL, et al, 1996). -Children who witness violence are more likely than those who have not to exhibit frequent aggressive and antisocial behaviors, increased fearfulness, higher levels of depression and anxiety, and have a great acceptance of violence as a means of resolving conflict (Osofsky, JD, 1997). -Body s response to consistent trauma -Doing vs. Thinking brain -Constantly in fight or flight mode, hinders brain development CONSISTENCY -Stabilization allows children to process and be able to move on from trauma. Structure and predictability help children feel safe and secure (BassukEL, et al. 2006). -Have group same day each week. -Start and end the same way. -Give them an agenda on the board for group time. OUTLET -Learn about self care -Learn about stress strategies -Vent about crappy stuff 2
In every group session:...... + Beginning of Group + Review group expectation and ground rules + "One good and one bad" whip around + Have personal question/ statement box available + Middle of Group + Utilize paraphrasing Provide positive feedback Reflect and connect 3
In every group session:...... + End of Group + Summarize session/ ask questions + Why did we do what we did? What did you learn? How did you feel? + Connect group work to real world + How can you apply this to your life outside of school? How can you use this info while in school? End with check-out one word whip around with questions 4
10 Week Program + Week 1:... + Introduction/ create group expectations/ pre-test + Inclusion activities/ Get to know each other games + Potato activity + Snowball activity + Week2: Inclusion activities/ why are we here? + Step together, step apart activity + "Stand up if you... " activity Build background knowledge + Use class readings, but make the info age appropriate Talk about homelessness and high mobility + What does it mean to individual group members? What does it mean to our group? What does it mean to kids who aren't homeless? What does it mean to teacliers? Potato Activity -Materials: enough potatoes for each student, cloth bag 1. Empty bag of potatoes on table in the middle of the group. Ask students if the potatoes are all the same or all different. They will say the same. 2. Have each student take a potato and name it 3. Then tell the students that their potato is their very best friend who has experienced a lot of the same stuff they have. Many of our experiences, especially the negative ones, can leave marks or scars inside us where we can hide them. Your best potato friend has his/her marks on the outside where they are visible to others. Pick 4 marks on your best potato friend and label each mark with something that has left a mark inside you from you past or current experiences. Keep these thoughts to yourself. 4. Now everyone will put their potato back into the bag. Ask the group if they will be able to identify their own potato best friend. They will say yes. You respond with, But I thought they were all the same?! 5. Shake the bag up, mixing the potatoes up, then dump it back out. Have the kids find their own potato best friend based on the marks that they have assigned meaning to. 6. Finish with, sometimes, we lump people of a group all together. When we think, They re all alike, we are really saying that we haven t taken the time or thought it important enough to get to know the person and learn about what makes them unique. When we do begin to get to know people, we find out every-one is different and special in some way. We also begin to realize that people who look similar on the outside might have very different marks that we just can t see because we don t take the time to. Unlike our potato friends, we can keep things inside, but eventually, once people get to know us better, we can share our past experiences and feel better knowing that someone knows what we have been through. Snowball activity -Materials: paper, pencils or same colored pens 5
1. Give each student a blank sheet of paper and a writing utensil. 2. Tell them to write three things on the paper that no one knows about them. 3. Then tell them to crumble up the paper into a ball 4. Next, tell the students that we are going to have a snowball fight. Explain snowball safety rules. 5. Then, SNOWBALL FIGHT! Let the kids have fun and throw the paper for about a minute and then tell the to freeze. 6. Ask them to pick up the snowball nearest them and open it. 7. Ask for volunteers to read things written on the paper. 8. Have an open discussion about differences, experiences, likes, dislikes, cultures, practices, current situations, etc. Step Together, Step Apart Activity -Materials: Nothing! 1. Have two students in the group stand up in front of the group next to each other. Have the other group members share differences between the two people standing (i.e. one s a boy, one s a girl, one s tall, one s short, one s an 8 th grader, one s a 6 th grader, etc.) 2. Each time a difference is called out the two people move apart from each other. Make note of the distance and discuss what that means in terms of relationships, cultures, life experiences, etc. 3. Now, have the group start calling out similarities and have the two people take a step towards each other every time a similarity is called out. When they are back side by side have the group talk about the difference between differences and similarities. Also talk about how easy it was to find both differences and similarities in each other and that it is all about the way you look at people that defines your attitude towards them. 4. Talk about acceptance and group collaboration utilizing both differences and similarities in a powerful way. Stand up if you Materials: Nothing! 1. Have the group sit in a circle 2. Start by saying something simple like stand up if you like pizza 3. Have the kids make note of who stands up. Have them make eye contact and acknowledge each other. 4. Then let each student ask a stand up if you 5. Then, start to ask some more serious questions like stand up if you have ever felt hungry at night? or stand up if you have moved because you lost your house. 6. Have the kids acknowledge each other and remind students that we are in a safe space 7. Talk about dealing with hard things. Talk about similarities and differences to the students in our group. 8. Leave time to process if students become more emotional due to the heavy content of the activity. 5
MASLOW -Students should be broken up into five groups. Each group should be assigned to one of the needs from Maslow's hierarchy. Have each group brainstorm a list of needs that corresponds to that level of the hierarchy and in what way those needs can be met. Have the group share their findings by writing their needs on a board or large sheet of paper that can then be shared with the other groups. Read more: Group Activities for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ehow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_12099017_group-activitiesmaslows-hierarchy-needs.html#ixzz2c9vrwhst What would you bring? -Materials: plastic baggies, strips of paper, pens/pencils 1. Have students write the top 10 things they would bring with them if they were told they had to leave the place that they were staying. 2. Have them share with each other what they wrote. 3. Then, add another obstacle (i.e. it s winter in Madison or it s July in Madison or you need to bring your family s cat or your great great grandma) 4. Have the group talk about what is important to them and what they could live without 5. Talk about how real this activity was for them. Has this happened? Were you able to bring the things you cared about most? How did you feel? How would you feel if this happened? Would it change depending on the weather? The time of year? With pets? With older family members? Info for students 6
- Use handouts, flow charts, and pamphlets from class. Make copies for students to have. - Potential guest speaker- someone from the street outreach program at YouthSOS (contact Tyler or Erica or Sam). 6
10 Week Program + Week 5: + Discussion on trauma/ past experiences + Leave lots of time for processing + Share a few pieces from: No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children by Judith Berck + Write letters or poems to parents or loved ones about feelings / emotions/ hopes/ dreams + Week6: Stress Strategies/ Coping Tools + How to cope with stress in and out of school + Mindfulness exercise + Deep breathing exercise + Stress objects/ fidgets/ breaks "Rage to Reason" Activity... Rage to Reason Activity -Materials: m&m candies 1. Give each student 10 pieces of candy. 2. Then, explain that each student needs to think of something that they are really really angry about. Maybe it s about their living situation, maybe it s about a grade they got in math, maybe it s about a peer issue, maybe it s about their parent not providing for them, etc.) 3. Allow the student to rant and vent as much as they want (using appropriate language and controlling their body), but every 10 seconds that they remain angry they must give up a piece of candy. Explain that every time we decide to get angry we end up losing some control of ourselves and, in this case, we lose control of our candy. 4. The student can then earn their candy back by coming up with stress strategies or coping tools that they can utilize. 7
10 Week Program + Week 7: -.'- -,'- Therapy dog for trauma informed care Talk about Animal Assisted Therapy + How can Kirby help? + Grounding force while experiencing triggers + Utilizing Kirby as a transition object + Week8: Self care/ Self Advocacy + What can we do to take care of ourselves? + Service learning/ Taking a stand in the community Brain storm what our group can do to decrease homelessness and high mobility Develop an action plan Anxiety symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor Involve 3 major symptom groups Re-experiencing the traumatic event Intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks Avoidance and numbing Attempts to protect against re-experiencing Increased arousal Hypervigilance, insomnia, inability to concentrate, elevated startle response Social Risk Factors Family history of psychiatric illness Adverse life events and prior child trauma exposure Death of a family member Lack of social support Poverty Immigration to the US because of armed conflict Animals as objects of attachment Animals provide that emotional bond that might not be present in a child who has experience significant trauma. The animal can act as a stabilizer that can keep the child in the present should something trigger them into re-experiencing their traumatic event. Staying in the present and working on their anxiety is the most important way to help the child overcome the anxiety provoking past trauma. Maintaining Coping Tools 8
Utilize the animal as source of support and as a coping tool for the child when they are beginning to recall their traumatic past experience. Begin having the child activity seeks out animal when they feel anxiety beginning to manifest. Take pictures of the animal or the child and the animal together for the child to have when they begin to feel anxiety and are unable to interact with the animal directly. Agents for Attachment: RAD kids RAD arises from a failure to form normal attachments to primary caregivers in early childhood. Such a failure could result from severe early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between the ages of six months and three years, frequent change of caregivers, or a lack of caregiver responsiveness to a child's communicative efforts. Children with attachment disorders can utilize animals as the catalyst to developing positive relationships with others. When a child develops a secure attachment to an animal that animal can act as the transitional object in the therapeutic context by serving as the emotional bridge to a higher or more socially acceptable level of functioning. 8
10 Week Program + Week9:...... + Community Outreach + Have JFF worker and/ or Meadow Wood Center Director come in to talk about ways to community build around homelessness. + Discuss ways to advocate for resources and community build + Have students share action plan + Wrap up discussion + What have we learned? + How can we move forward? + Week 10: Take Post-test Last day of group celebration Reflection Contact Mike Bruce 9
Action Plan....... What is What Who is What do What is How do How will Did we our goal? steps do responsible? we need? our time we we achieve we take? line? monitor evaluate our goals? our our progress? progress? 10
Goals:...... + Provide space place for HMS to feel safe, understood, and accepted + Provide useful information to HMS and their families + Provide HMS the tools to use their own skills to bring about change in the community. 11
THANK YOU!....... 12