02 Jul Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City Awards $57,888 Grant to the YMCA of Greater Kansas City

The YMCA of Greater Kansas City recently received a grant for $57,888 from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (now the Health Forward Foundation), Mental Health Fund to deliver Head Start Trauma Smart services within the Head Start programs run by the YMCA.

Funding will send key Head Start Leadership staff through the TS Academies to be able to serve as trainers and coaches for all Head Start staff in this model. Staff will be trained on reflective coaching, parent education, and the Trauma Smart (TS) model. This, along with ongoing consultation from Crittenton to support evaluation and fidelity, will provide the Y with greater organizational capacity, increasing access to trauma informed services, improving program capacity, and delivering improved quality of care.

Without a trauma-informed lens, the Head Start teachers are not properly equipped to address increasingly challenging classroom behaviors. This can limit their ability to prepare the children academically, and prevent meaningful engagement with parents.  The Y is committed to providing culturally competent services to a diverse participant base in a manner that fosters inclusion. The Y believes that healthy caregivers provide healthy caregiving and that it is important to equip our teachers and leaders with the tools they need to meet the needs of our target population. The Y uses data and draws from experience to seek to understand the ever-emerging and complex needs of the children and families that we serve.  The ACES study provides a foundation, and the ARC/TS model provides an effective roadmap for how we build and infuse trauma-informed initiatives into our work with teachers and parents to reinforce the overall health of our organization and those we serve.

The YMCA of Greater Kansas City (The Y), founded on Christian principles, is a charitable organization with an inclusive environment committed to enriching the quality of family, physical, social, mental, and physical well-being. Founded in Kansas City in 1860 as the seventh Y in North America, the Kansas City Y serves 150,000 members and program participants each year through 14 membership centers that span six counties in the bi-state greater Kansas City region. The three focus areas of the Kansas City Y are similar to those of the