Multisystem Youth: How we can understand the interplay of trauma and intersectional identity to improve outcomes for our most vulnerable youth.
March 19, 20215:00pm–6:00pm
Zoom: LIfTS March 2021 Keynote RegistrationFree and Open to the Public
Check out the video (link below) from our most recent keynote session on October 9, 2020. Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite discusses The Intersection of Trauma and Racism
As part of Lesley University’s ongoing commitment to the development of safe and supportive schools,and equity in education, the Lesley Institute for Trauma Sensitivity (LIfTS) conducts two residencies annually, featuring a guest speaker on a topic of trauma and learning, free and open to the public. The March 2021remoteresidency speaker is Kate Lowenstein, JD, MSW.
The majority of the young people who end up involved in our juvenile justice system have multiple traumatic experiences during their childhood. In Massachusetts, experiences in the child welfare system too often compound existing trauma as the brain is developing, leading to trauma-related behaviors that are punished instead of treated, particularly for Black and Brown youth. For youth involved in the child welfare system, school can be a place of adult and peer stability, or a place where misunderstood trauma is punished and the “school to prison pipeline” accelerated. This presentation will explore the data on Massachusetts foster youth, their intersectional identities, their experiences in the child welfare and school systems, and what the research tells us about how to best support these youth before trauma-related behaviors result in punishment or arrest.
Kate began her career as part of a team implementing a court-ordered mandate to reform the juvenile justice system in Washington, D.C.She spent time working in the abuse and neglect system in Washington, D.C, before moving into the field of international human rights and victim rights asa victim organizer and co-director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights where she had extensive experience organizing and advocating for victims, murder victims' family members, and family members of people who have been executed by the state. Sheco-authored amicus curiae briefs on behalf of victims' family members to the Supreme Court including in the high-profile case Roper v. Simmons. Since joining Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ)she has worked to analyze the data and research on the feeder systems into the juvenile justice system in Massachusetts, and the ways all systems and agencies can work to address the factors that push our most vulnerable children toward the worst outcomes. Her work as Program Director of the MultiSystem Youth Project includes reports on dually-involved youth in MA which showed thatover 70% of the youth committed to DYS had experienced time in the Massachusetts child welfare system, and Shutting Down the Trauma to Prison Pipeline report which addressed the issue of the increase in children in out of home placement in Massachusetts and the ways in which trauma is punished rather than treated.
Questions? Email us at spedcenter@lesley.edu