When a bomb goes off, the damage spreads beyond the point of the explosion. Fragments tear apart the surrounding landscape—and anyone standing nearby.

The same is true when young people experience trauma. As they seek help, this emotional shrapnel may scar those around them. Called secondary trauma, it’s particularly tough on educators. And it’s a challenge United Way is tackling in our region.

“Many students in our schools go home to very stressful environments,” explained Jennifer Nottingham, Associate Director of Community Impact. “They may not have stable housing or strong family support.  They might be living with substance abuse, or emotional neglect, or in an unsafe neighborhood.  Traumatic stress can be a lot of different things.”

“These traumatic stressors severely affect children. The educators who work with those children see this every day,” Nottingham added. “Day after day, year after year, seeing and hearing these stories takes a huge emotional toll. It becomes almost as bad as experiencing the horror of the trauma yourself.”

The effects of secondary trauma include:

• Emotional — feeling numb or detached; feeling overwhelmed or maybe even hopeless.
• Physical — having low energy or feeling fatigued.
• Behavioral — changing one’s routine or engaging in self-destructive coping mechanisms.
• Professional — experiencing low performance of job tasks and responsibilities; feeling low job morale.
• Cognitive — experiencing confusion, diminished concentration and difficulty with decision making; experiencing trauma imagery, which is seeing events over and over again.
• Spiritual — questioning the meaning of life or lacking self-satisfaction.
• Interpersonal — physically withdrawing or becoming emotionally unavailable to co-workers or family.

Supporting child social emotional wellbeing is a strategic priority of United Way. But United Way takes that one step further: making sure educators get the support they need, too, so that they can better serve their students.

This month, United Way hosted two free retreats to help area educators cope with secondary trauma.  Titled “Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First,” the sessions focused on self-care and mindfulness.  Keynoted by philanthropist and renowned speaker Shannon Cohen, and supported by mindfulness experts Deb Faling and Launda Wheatley, as well as community partners BC Pulse and KYDNet, educators were encouraged to make taking care of themselves a priority.  They were given tools to engage in self care and connected with community resources so that they could experience life with greater emotional, mental and physical balance. Read more about the retreats here.

“By tackling the full spectrum of trauma, we’re building social emotional wellbeing for everyone in the classroom,” Nottingham said. “That means emotionally healthy kids, emotionally healthy educators, and a better learning environment to help kids succeed long-term.”

Click here to learn more about United Way’s education strategies and find out how you can help #ChangeTheStory.