Clark State Community College will receive $1,587,096 from the Title III Strengthening Institutions Program grant. Clark State will use the funds to implement additional trauma-informed practices at the college.
The Ohio Department of Education will release the funds to Clark State on October 1 of this year.
“The entire college community is grateful to have been awarded the Title III grant, Strengthening Institutional Program,” said Dr. Tiffany Hunter, vice president of academic affairs for Clark State. “The award will enable us to better serve our students with a clear focus and emphasis on trauma-informed practices. We are looking forward to assisting our students through support in all areas of the college as we acknowledge the trauma and mental health issues that exist for our students and the community.”
The goal of the Trauma Informed Practices project is to increase enrollment, student success, retention and completion by supporting Clark State students holistically in order to reduce stress and improve mental health. To achieve this goal, Clark State will move towards a trauma-informed model of operations.
Some of the important features of trauma-informed practices include a power dynamic that fosters partnership between the service provider and service recipient, maximizing a person’s choices and control over a situation, basing interactions in relational collaboration and emphasizing strengths, adaptations and resilience over symptoms, among other things.
Dr. Jo Alice Blondin, president of Clark State said implementing trauma-informed practices will allow Clark State to add features and programs that will be helpful for all students, but be especially supportive for students who have experienced trauma or potentially traumatic events
“Clark State is one of the first – if not the first – college to scale trauma-informed practice to ensure student success. This grant is very timely given the collective traumas many students have experienced as a result of the pandemic,” said Blondin. “We are grateful for the work and communication by our legislators – particularly Senators Brown and Portman and Congressman Davidson – for their support of college students in general, and community college students in particular.”