TASV - Information for Parents & Caregivers
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
We are excited to give you an overview of the Adventure to Thrive, which your child may have the opportunity to participate in. This program is part of a larger initiative, the Trauma Aware School Village (TASV), aimed at providing wraparound support and learning for students, education staff and parents to more effectively attend to the effects of trauma in- and out of the classroom.
Adventure to Thrive
Adventure to Thrive is a program run once-a-week over 8 weeks during class time, including a hike excursion in the middle of the program. The learning is designed to equip students with self-regulation skills and practice them in mildly-challenging, but safe activities and environments.
We have been successfully delivering Adventure to Thrive in schools since our pilot program in 2021.
Additionally, teachers and other school staff will undergo Trauma Responsive Training to support the program effectively. We are also offering Parent Workshops to share the language and understanding that will assist in creating a ‘village’ to support your child's learning and development - access these workshops below.
We believe this initiative will greatly benefit your child and the school community by fostering a supportive and understanding environment. We look forward to your support and participation in this important project.
Parent Workshops
An important part of the TASV is engaging parents in the process to develop a common understanding and framework for how to support their children between home and school life. We provide workshops for parents to share in some of the basic language and concepts presented to the school, while also engaging select groups in a co-design process to ensure these workshops are as useful, relevant and accessible as possible.
Parent Workshops can be joined in-person, online or on-demand at your convenience. To find out dates for in-person or online workshops, contact your school administrator.
The On-Demand Parent Workshops will be available here soon.
Follow-Up Sessions
A follow-up session will be provided for parents wishing to engage more deeply with the TASV project and have any questions answered. More information about these follow-ups (with dates) will be provided shortly.
Feedback
We really appreciate hearing from participants about how we can continuously improve our offerings. To provide feedback or ask any questions related to this project, please fill out our TASV Feedback Form. We look forward to hearing from you.
If you would like to stay connected regarding updates to this project, please write to info@connectedself.com.au
Frequently Asked Questions
Consent and Data Collection
As part of the research component, data will be collected to evaluate the program's effectiveness. This will include observations, surveys, and interviews with participants. Consent forms will be required for both the program participation and the research study. There may also be opportunities for students, staff, and parents to participate in focus groups to help inform the rollout of the program. For more information regarding consent, data collection, storage and usage please click here.
Will my child be safe?
Our Adventure to Thrive program is designed to be physically safe and emotionally responsive to the needs of every child participating. We provide gently activating, yet safe and benign experiences for students to learn to self- and co-regulate. However, we appreciate that every child is unique and brings with them unique stories, experiences and histories that may come into the learning space. In these instances we validate, but redirect attention to emotionally safe narratives for the whole classroom.
What sorts of activities will you run with the students?
We will run activities including creating superhero avatars with art supplies, making ‘home base’ with limited resources, drawing to music, an easy outdoor hike, sharing circles and more.
What do you mean by ‘Experiential Learning’?
Experiential learning can take various forms, but in the Adventure to Thrive program we run activities (see previous question) and then discuss with the students what they notice about how they felt and what they thought in themselves and in their interactions with each other. The purpose of these activities is to guide children into feeling and learning about their own nervous systems, their states of regulation and what tools they can use to help themselves and each other.