Rainbows for All Children Partner with CTUF to Support CPS Students Experiencing Traumatic Loss
Who: Rainbows for All Children (Rainbows)/Chicago Teachers Union Foundation (CTUF)
What: Partnership to Bring Support to Chicago’s Children Experiencing Traumatic Loss
When: Fall 2019
Where: Chicago, IL
Why: Providing support services to children who are learning to grieve and grow after loss.
Rainbows works to be in every community where there are children in need, and yet funding makes it a challenge to reach the roughly 50 million children struggling with traumatic grief and loss in the U.S. Thanks to the support of the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, Rainbows for All Children is training 175 Chicago Public School teachers and staff to provide peer support groups FREE to children and teens who desperately need help in dealing with the trauma associated with losing a family member as a result of death, separation/divorce, incarceration, deportation, deployment, significant illness, or another life-altering, traumatic event.
CTUF is the philanthropic arm of the Chicago Teachers Union whose mission is to develop networks that advance education for students, advocate for teachers, and resource under-served communities. They assist with educational and charitable activities to help meet the needs of every Chicago Public School student.
By choosing to partner with Rainbows, CTUF is demonstrating their commitment to addressing the social and emotional needs of the children served by CPS. This partnership will make peer support services available to youth who are experiencing loss in the community where they live, learn and play.
“Rainbows has been making peer support programs possible for 36 years. This collaboration with CTUF will advance the support services in our ‘hometown’ enormously, and we are thrilled to be able to reach thousands more children and teens with our evidence-based supportive curriculum that helps build resiliency and teaches healthy coping skills. Additionally, CTUF has demonstrated that the mental health and wellbeing of our children is critical to their ability to learn,” says Stephanie Garrity, Executive Director of Rainbows for All Children. “Rainbows and the children we serve in the City of Chicago are healthier and happier for the support of CTUF!”
“Our students and teachers experience gut-wrenching trauma as an all-too-frequent part of working in Chicago Public Schools. It is so important for us to raise our awareness of this issue as we work to provide full-time school social workers, counselors, and other supports in our schools,” says Jesse Sharkey, Chicago Teachers Union Foundation Board President.
ABOUT Rainbows:
Rainbows for All Children exists because research shows 61% of children in America will experience a life-altering event triggering profound grief before they turn 18 years old. Youth are affected by significant loss such as: death in the family, separation/divorce, abandonment, military deployment, deportation, incarceration or diagnosis of a significant illness. Rainbows is dedicated to helping youth successfully navigate the very difficult grief process associated with these types of loss. Rainbows fosters awareness that youth require support to heal and nurtures a community of effective Rainbows-trained facilitators, supported with a repository of resources designed to guide youth in their grieving process.
Since 1983, Rainbows has sustained more than 3.5 million children and families in the wake of their tragedies through peer-support group programs and services, strategically designed to properly address their social and emotional well-being after a life-altering loss event. For more information, visit www.rainbows.org or contact: Stephanie Garrity 847-828-3796.