Twenty years ago, the vision for the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) took shape: to ensure every child had access to the mental health support they deserve. Your steadfast partnership has helped CCR turn that vision into action—and impact. Your generosity, whether through funding, advocacy or partnership, has been the foundation of our efforts. Thank you for standing with us and for helping build a future where every child can thrive.

Our school-based mental health initiatives help build sustainable systems for increasing access to mental health services. What began as a partnership with several Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has now grown to state-wide work reaching hundreds of districts in Illinois.

School-based Mental Health Interventions

School-based mental health interventions are designed for small groups of students who need help with specific skills to prevent or reduce mental health symptoms. CCR has built the evidence for and broadly disseminated a variety of curriculums that help children and youth gain anger management skills, build resilience, reduce impulsivity, process traumatic events and develop coping strategies. We offer six school-based mental health interventions from grade school through high school.

In line with our commitment to helping school professionals deliver evidence-based care to students of all backgrounds, we developed a workshop for CPS behavioral health staff to improve their knowledge and readiness to incorporate culturally responsive practices into group implementation. One participant shared: “I loved how each session equipped me with the knowledge, awareness, and skills to go back to my school and implement what I have learned immediately.” 

Behavioral Health Teams (BHTs)

BHTs are multidisciplinary school teams developed to establish systems of care for students in need of mental health services across the multi-tiered classification of need. In 2022, CPS committed to establishing BHTs in every school in the district. By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, CPS had 477 active BHTs, representing a 138% increase from Fall 2021. 

Preliminary research indicates that successful implementation of certain BHT components, such as universal supports, is positively associated with better student attendance and fewer student behavioral infractions.

Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) Statewide Initiative

REACH supports Illinois’ school districts in creating healthy learning environments and offers schools an evidence-informed process using national best practices with a specific focus on creating trauma-responsive schools. Using self-reported data and assessments, school teams review current policies and practices, develop strategic plans and participate in communities of practice to support their ability to create a healing-centered school environment. REACH programming is a model for Illinois’ other agencies as they seek to become more trauma-responsive and healing centered.

REACH grew from a small, local pilot project to a statewide initiative funded by philanthropy and $10.5M from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER II) from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education.

Preliminary outcomes from our REACH evaluation show:

• Students in “very engaged” REACH schools tended to have slightly lower out of school suspensions.
• Students in “engaged” REACH schools tended to have lower chronic absenteeism rates and tended to perform higher on state math achievement tests.

One of the hallmarks of CCR’s work is our responsiveness to emerging community needs, especially those of vulnerable populations such as LGBTQ+ youth, youth of color and refugee/immigrant populations.

During the last school year, CCR trained CPS staff and students on strategies to support wellness for newcomer youth. The Supporting Newcomer Youth Wellness in Schools (SNYWS) training focuses on learning about the refugee/immigrant experience across their journey (premigration, migration and post-migration), immigrant/newcomer stress and strategies and resources for supporting youth and families in elementary and high school settings. Participants also learn about the universal application of trauma-informed, healing-centered strategies.

One participant shared: "[The SNYWS] presentation was thoughtful, practical, inspiring and engaging. It put me in the shoes of others, and it helped me to see situations from other perspectives. It was extremely well done."

CCR's work in the early childhood field has expanded tremendously since it began in 2017. Our work with the National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety (NCHBHS) is now entering its 5th year.

Through this partnership with the Office of Head Start (OHS), CCR works with Education Development Center and Georgetown University to promote child well-being by building the capacity of Head Start programs. As a national expert in the OHS Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) system, CCR works at the local, regional and national levels to improve the knowledge, skills and practices of Head Start grantees across all 50 states. Our work with OHS has the potential to impact over 542,000 children ages 3 and up. CCR presented a well-attended national webinar on trauma informed care and early relational health: 

This year, CCR reestablished a valuable partnership with the Chicago Public Schools Office of Early Childhood Education (CPC OECE). CCR provided a 3-part foundational trauma and early relational health training series to cohorts of preschool teachers and staff. This renewed collaboration provides the opportunity for CCR to promote child well-being across CPC OECE, which serves over 18,000 children in 883 classrooms.

Our work with the National Center for Safe Supportive Schools (NCS3) is entering its 5th year. To date, 28 districts in 25 states have joined our national learning collaborative to improve culturally responsive and trauma-informed school mental health systems in their schools. Findings from our first cohort of 15 districts showed that over the two years of their participation, they significantly improved their scores on a measure of school mental health quality – showing improvements in universal mental health promotion and early intervention services for students in need, among other areas (manuscript currently under review). NCS3 is funded by a grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

We hired two researchers this year to accelerate the growth of our research, innovation and investigation agendas:

David W. Johnson, PhD, LSW, Research Assistant Professor

Dr. Johnson joined us from University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. He has more than a decade of experience in education research and school improvement efforts. His research focuses on the role that schools and evidence-based interventions play in shaping both the mental and behavioral health of young people, as well as their academic achievement and attainment. Dr. Johnson’s research supports both community-based and district-led efforts to create and sustain student-centered school environments that address and promote the resilience and wellbeing of young people, particularly those affected by poverty, violence and racism. Dr. Johnson holds doctoral and masters degrees from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, as well as a master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Courtney Zulauf-McCurdy, PhD, Early Childhood Research Lead

Dr. Zulauf-McCurdy came to Lurie Children’s from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development. Her research and clinical interests are driven by her commitment to reduce mental health disparities for young children from historically marginalized backgrounds. Dr. Zulauf-McCurdy received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed a clinical internship in Integrated Behavioral Health at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

CCR is committed to building the pool of talented professionals who take a public health approach to improving the mental health of children and youth. Our multi-disciplinary setting and well-established school and community relationships position us to train the next generation of child mental health experts. 

CCR’s diverse team of psychologists and social workers (33% African American, 8% Latinx, and 16% bilingual in Spanish) positions us to recruit and mentor diverse trainees. Four out of ten fellows have been Black or Latinx, bringing much-needed diversity to the field. In addition, we train psychology students through rotations.

Each year, the CCR team spends hundreds of hours working with advocacy groups, partner organizations and legislators to support policies that support the mental health of children and youth.

Last year, Dr. Cicchetti worked with Dana Weiner, PhD, Director of Illinois' Children's Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative, and the Illinois Department of Public Health on the development of Senate Bill SB 726, which develops a strategy to implement universal mental health screening of students. The bill became effective in August 2024 and represents a significant step towards improving mental health services for children in Illinois, focusing on early detection through school-based screenings.

The collective power of our supporters has helped CCR innovate and develop new programs. As our reputation has grown, so has the belief in our initiatives. We have been able to attract an increasing amount of state and federal support and become less reliant on contracted services and funding from special agencies.