HANCOCK COUNTY — The Mt. Vernon Education Foundation has received a $12,000 grant, part of which will be used to enhance a social-emotional program the school district has been using.
Funds will also be used to help students who lack internet connectivity at home.
The grant is from the Central Indiana COVID-19 Community Economic Relief Fund made possible by Lilly Endowment, Inc. and awarded by United Way of Central Indiana. Lilly Endowment donated more than $1.7 million to help meet needs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks and Morgan counties.
According to a news release from Mt. Vernon, funds will support individuals and families affected by the economic impacts of pandemic. Those at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Level will be prioritized.
Renee Oldham, executive director of the Mt. Vernon Education Foundation, wrote in her application for the grant about the trauma-informed initiative the school district is carrying out to address students’ academic, social, emotional and behavioral outcomes.
“Roughly two-thirds of our Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation students prior to COVID-19 would have experienced at least one significant trauma before graduating high school,” Oldham wrote. “We are anticipating and preparing for elevated issues of trauma experiences due to the pandemic, and the impact it has had and will have on our students, families, and community in the foreseeable future.”
The initiative is called Trust-Based Relational Intervention, a therapeutic model that uses empowerment, connection and correction to soothe children’s trauma.
Mt. Vernon started the initiative about a year and a half ago at Fortville Elementary School. Stacy Muffler, principal of the school, gave an update on how it’s helped students’ education at a school board meeting in September. She said the initiative has taught her and her colleagues the importance of ensuring students get their minds in a regulated state for learning, which can be enhanced through tools purchased for them like stretch bands.
Another part of the initiative is emphasizing students’ use of “good words” and phrases like “no, thank you” and “yes, please,” and ensuring they’re not telling when they should be asking, Muffler said.
Grant funding will be used to enhance Trust-Based Relational Intervention at Mt. Vernon by purchasing supplies to meet students’ basic needs like nutritional snacks and comforting weighted blankets.
“Once educators meet the basic needs of their students, including adequate food and water during school, the groundwork for a more personal relationship is present,” a news release from Mt. Vernon states. “…Overall, students will become more engaged, regulated, and aware while also maintaining a boundary-controlled, trust-based relationship with their teacher and peers.”
Funds will also be put toward a sensory walk for Fortville Elementary School.
Mt. Comfort Elementary School got two sensory walks on the floor of its first-grade hallway last year. They’re made up of stickers of numbered lily pads and squares and lettered tree stumps along with arrows, logs, rocks, rockets, footprints and hand prints. The paths give students an opportunity to burn off energy and give their brains a reset before heading back to class for learning.
Grant funds will be used for audio-visual equipment for a special education resource classroom at McCordsville Elementary School as well.
The Mt. Vernon Education Foundation has also added five internet hotspots to its collection with the help of the grant funds. School counselors help identify students in need of internet connectivity at home and make recommendations to the foundation for the internet-providing devices.
