UNH TIPP - Graduate Certificate in Trauma-Informed Schools & Communities Project
UNH TIPP - Graduate Certificate in Trauma-Informed Schools & Communities Project
The University of New Hampshire’s Departments of Education and Social Work, in collaboration with the Institute on Disability, are offering an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (TIPP): promoting positive, strengths based development through multi-tiered systems of support, universal design for learning, equity, and inclusion among children and youth with disabilities. The program is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U. S. Department of Education, providing service scholarships to 48 qualified UNH masters students in special education or social work. TIPP has been approved as a formal sustainable UNH Graduate Certificate Program, making it available to scholars who do not meet the OSEP criteria for participation.
TIPP is designed to prepare graduate social work and special education scholars in research-based practices and systems change strategies to improve outcomes for children and youth with significant support needs, including those with emotional and behavioral challenges, developmental and intellectual disabilities, autism, sensory, and other learning disabilities. Scholars are required to take 5 courses in the UNH social work and education departments, including an interdisciplinary seminar where scholars learn about the impact of trauma on child development, including harsh or neglectful environments, educational interventions that may be trauma inducing, universal design for learning, multi-tiered system of support, and strengths-based, cross-disciplinary care.
This program is unique as it brings together special educators and social workers to learn about the adverse impacts of trauma and building resiliency and inclusion at the individual, family, school, and community levels. The first cohort of 16 scholars finished their interdisciplinary seminar in May, 2020. The response to the program has been overwhelmingly positive, with one scholar sharing this in her program evaluation, “Thank you … for putting this program together and all of your dedication to educational equity.”
