REGISTER HERE!
FREE: 1 IDFPR CEU for LSW/LCSW, LPC/LCPC, Psychologists, and ISBE CPDU’s for School Professionals
SUMMARY
Educators are often among the first people to recognize when a student, family, classroom, or school community is struggling. Yet they may not always feel prepared, empowered, or included in broader conversations about safety, prevention, mental health, and healing.
This 60 minute Trust & Grow session explores how educators can move from noticing concern to building connection and taking meaningful action. Drawing from clinical counseling, school based crisis response, MTSS, community mental health, and post crisis support, the session examines how teachers, school counselors, social workers, administrators, families, and community partners can work together to support student safety, belonging, and wellbeing.
Rather than focusing only on crisis response, participants will consider the everyday conditions that help young people feel seen, supported, and safe. They will explore how trusted relationships, trauma informed communication, emotional regulation, and collaboration across roles can strengthen prevention before a student reaches a breaking point.
This session is designed for anyone who believes school safety is shaped not only by what adults do during moments of danger, but by what they build every day through trust, relationships, communication, and collective responsibility.
OBJECTIVES
- Explain why educators and other trusted adults are essential to student safety, mental health, and crisis prevention.
- Identify barriers that prevent adults from recognizing concerns, communicating across roles, and responding collaboratively.
- Apply practical, trauma informed strategies for moving from concern to connection and coordinated action.
PRESENTER
Josh Novick, MA, LCPC, is the founder of Trust & Grow. His experience spans clinical counseling, higher education, crisis response, community mental health, and serving as a school counselor on Chicago’s West Side. Following the 2022 Highland Park shooting, Josh helped lead a community response center that mobilized hundreds of volunteer mental health professionals. He later received recognition from the Illinois Senate for this work. Josh has presented at the Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference, the Illinois School Counselor Association Conference, and the National Center for School Mental Health’s Annual Conference. Drawing on both professional expertise and lived experience, Josh helps schools, organizations, and communities move beyond reactive approaches by strengthening the trust, connection, emotional safety, and systems of support that make prevention, healing, and growth possible.
