On September 14, the Ferguson Commission, an independent group appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to conduct a study of the social and economic conditions that impede progress, equality and safety in the St. Louis region, released its final report, entitled “Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity.” The report highlights the need for schools to understand the impact of trauma on students and cites TLPI’s work as a model.
The Commission’s expansive recommendations highlight the importance of supporting the whole child:
“To support the whole child is to appreciate how hunger not only affects health, but also how it affects a child’s behavior in school, and how a child’s behavior in school— and the kind and severity of discipline that school leaders use to address that behavior—affects that child’s education. To support the whole child is to appreciate how that child’s education affects not only his or her own future well-being—career prospects, access to health care, ability to build wealth, etc.—but also, by definition, the well-being of the next generation, to which that child will be a parent. Considering the whole child—thinking about every child as a developing human being with unknowable, infinite potential—impels us to think holistically about how we as a society, as a community, as a region, can support that child.”
Click here to read the full Ferguson Commission report.
Click here to learn more about the Ferguson Commission.