GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT
Helping New Jersey Schools and Law Enforcement Build Strong Partnerships to Address the Impact of Trauma
Resilient Minds on the Front Lines
“We believe this training approach will be transformative. It has the potential to become a national training model for educating law enforcement and educators together on ACEs and Handle With Care.”
– Robert Czepiel, Esq., Resilient Minds on the Front Lines
Resilient Minds on the Front Lines is a nonprofit organization that brings tools, knowledge, skills, and instruction to help first responders help themselves and others. Led by New Jersey-based trainers with extensive backgrounds in law enforcement and education, the organization offers programs focused on mental health and well-being, with a special focus on addressing the needs of first responders.
Police often engage with youth during difficult moments during the young people’s lives – moments that will live on as memories and can potentially be traumatic. Handle With Care (HWC), a partnership between law enforcement and schools originally developed in West Virginia, enables officers to alert schools when a student has experienced or witnessed a potentially traumatic event and might need to be “handled with care.” The schools then can offer appropriate counseling and support services. In 2020, the Attorney General of New Jersey issued a directive requiring all law enforcement agencies in the state to implement HWC. The statewide HWC program in New Jersey builds on successful implementation in Cape May County, led by Middle Township Police Chief Christopher Leusner in partnership with the county Chiefs of Police Association.
With funding from the Burke Foundation, Resilient Minds will initiate a pilot program pairing experts in HWC, trauma-informed care, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and resiliency with local law enforcement and schools in three New Jersey communities. Working with professional evaluators, Resilient Minds will guide schools and law enforcement to identify best practices for police-school partnerships, HWC implementation, and community engagement.
The training curriculum will cover ACEs awareness, responsible and effective implementation of HWC, creating a culture of responsiveness to trauma, building positive relationships to buffer the effects of ACEs, and developing partnerships for sustainable change. This joint police-educator training curriculum — integrating ACEs awareness and education, HWC components and requirements, and trauma-informed practices and protocols related to both — will be the first of its kind in the nation.
Children who experience 4-plus ACEs are 4 times more likely to become juvenile offenders.
“This initiative is an opportunity to advance and unite important work being done by schools and law enforcement to mitigate ACEs and trauma. We are building partnerships based on communication and collaboration, so we can be more effective in implementing Handle with Care to create positive and sustainable change for our kids and communities.”
– Dr. Kate Tumelty Felice, Resilient Minds on the Front Lines