Tilden Resiliency Intervention Program

SGA Youth & Family Services 

Tilden Resilience Intervention Program 

The SGA Youth & Family Services NFP Tilden Resilience Intervention Program (TRIP) will serve the students, families and faculty of Tilden High School in Chicago’s Fuller Park community. Fuller Park is Chicago’s smallest neighborhood struggling with some of the city’s biggest problems: gun violence, gangs, poverty and unemployment. Students at Tilden suffer from toxic stress and exposure to multiple traumas, which leads to aggression and lack of focus in the classroom. The purpose of TRIP is to reduce and prevent violence within the school, create a positive learning environment, address the impact of trauma and build resilience among students, teachers, administration and parents. TRIP utilizes three major strategies to enhance school capacity to address school violence: it builds a community wide Resilience Network to engage CBOs and grassroots leaders who have violence prevention expertise into the school community; it creates a School Safety Strategic Plan, evolving as community needs change over time, to address the physical and emotional safety of everyone in the school community; and utilizes the evidence-based Trauma Informed Resilience Oriented Schools Toolkit to establish understanding of trauma, its impact and prevalence in the school community and embed resilience into all decision-making. The program includes small and large group violence prevention education, individual behavioral health interventions, teacher stress assessment and resilience building and innovative parental inclusion. These services foster resilience and increase potential to overcome the effects of trauma, improve learning outcomes and poise youth for a brighter future. TRIP reduces community marginalization by addressing barriers, such as lack of youth mental health services, and engaging stakeholders in building community capacity.