CFC Center: At a Glance, February 2021

Rebound and Recovery  

Rebound and Recovery is a social-emotional curriculum for Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) four-year-old to second grade based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The curriculum was developed in spring 2020 by the Center for the Study and Promotion of Communities, Families, and Children (CFC Center), led by Tai Cole, MSW, CFC Curriculum Developer. In 2020, the curriculum was piloted in the VPK program of the Learning Pavilion, a fully inclusive childcare facility serving all children, including children with developmental delays and disabilities. The evidenced-informed curriculum utilizes a Montessori learning style and incorporates art therapy, play therapy, and mindfulness skills.

Consisting of ten lessons, Rebound and Recovery teaches children foundational information about their emotions and draws on CBT to understand the connection between their thoughts, emotions, and actions. In the photo, Kathryn Doles, a CFC Rebound and Recovery facilitator and MSW graduate at the FSU College of Social Work, is asking children from the Learning Paviliion to point out their emotions on a puppet. Children are taught to recognize and name their emotions using an Emotion Chart, Feeling Meter, and the Cognitive Behavior triangle. The interactive curriculum incorporates songs, puppets, storybooks, and hands-on activities such as creating monster stress balls. Each week the children leave Rebound and Recovery with two new calming techniques and a physical tool such as a breathing bear, a calming bottle, or weighted sock used to help them regulate their emotions.

This spring, Rebound and Recovery are again being tested in the Learning Pavilion with four small groups of thirty-two children and two clinical small groups of nine children. After the beta testing phase is completed, the curriculum will be manualized and made available as a professional certification for early childhood educators. As part of the content review process, faculty from FSU and the University of Miami will review the course along with early educators from across the state.

Expected to be completed by June 1, 2021, the self-paced online 15-hour course will include case scenarios, multimedia materials, research-based readings, and quizzes. When professionals complete the training, they will receive professional certification from the FSU Center for Academic and Professional Development.

Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools

Since Fall 2020, the CFC Center has partnered with The Shadetree Group, a missional ministry based afterschool program in Gretna, Florida, to provide an evidence-based program, CBITS (Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools), to middle school aged-youth as a part of the Disaster Rebound and Recovery: A Translational Research Project. The project is directed by Dr. Tanya Renn (Principal Investigator) and Ellen Piekalkiewicz, CFC Center Director (Co-Investigator) and is funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Award grant. The CBITS program's goal is to strengthen the child participants’ resiliency to thrive amid life challenges. Once a week, the CFC team meets with their teen afterschool program, cover a CBITS topic, have a conversation, and end with a hands-on activity. The Shadetree Group is also accompanied by Bennie Brown, a CSW master student intern who helps not only The Shadetree Group but also the CFC team during the CBITS program. The CFC Center is looking for ways to strengthen the partnership and build a stronger relationship with The Shadetree Group and the entire Gretna community.

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Photo (left to right): Bennie Brown (ShadeTree MSW Intern), Kiersten Kelley (CFC Center Graduate Assistant), Ellen Piekalkiewicz (CFC Center Director), Savannah Smith (CFC Center Clinical Program Associate) at ShadeTree

CFC Center Part of FSU Team Awarded NSF Grant

The CFC Center (FSU College of Social Work), Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center (FSU College of Engineering) and the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy (College of Social Sciences and Public Policy) were awarded a three-year National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (RCN) grant ($488,000) in spring 2020.

The project explores how to achieve adaptive resilience for Gulf coastal communities, which can extend to infrastructure resilience of other rural communities and aims to foster a new understanding of the complex interactions among the key elements of community resilience in rural coastline areas. The grant brings together interdisciplinary researchers to form working groups. The grant supports the research groups in communicating and coordinating their research, training, and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, and geographic boundaries. The grant also provides opportunities for new collaborations. It encourages innovation to implement novel networking strategies, collaborative technologies, training, broadening participation, and the development of community standards for data and meta-data.

In November 2020, the FSU team sponsored a workshop featuring fifteen FSU faculty members with current projects focused on natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. Four College of Social Work faculty presented on their research, including:

• Dr. Michael Killian: "Telemedicine Approaches with Immunosuppressed Populations During COVID-19: Promoting Medication Adherence in Adolescent Heart Transplant Recipients in Florida" 
• Dr. John Mathias: "Changing Disaster Response Roles for Nonprofits in the Context of Increasing Tropical Storm Activity" 
• Dr. Melissa Radey: “'I Don’t Have Much of a Choice': School Decisions Among Low-Income, Single Mothers During the COVID-19."
• Dr. Dina Wilke: "Examining the Health, Economic, & Professional Impacts of COVID-19 on Health and Human Services Workers"

Dean James Clark of the College of Social Work also participated in the event, as part of an hour-long Deans Panel with fellow FSU Deans Murray Gibson (Engineering) and Tim Chapin (Social Science and Public Policy).

The FSU research team also conducted a series of interviews with a diverse group of leading stakeholders who comprise the project advisory council. The interviews have yielded valuable insights into how federal, state, and local governments and nonprofit organizations prepare, respond, and facilitate recovery after a natural disaster and the current pandemic. One central theme has emerged – the rural digital divide. The lack of broadband access impedes rural counties’ ability to prepare, respond and recover from a natural disaster and pandemic. To further explore this topic, the FSU Team plans a virtual workshop, in collaboration with the FSU Institute of Government, on the rural digital divide to be held on March 2, 2021. For more information about this workshop, please visit the Institute’s home page at IOG.FSU.EDU.

 New CFC Center Staff

In 2021, the CFC Center has expanded its team to include three new team members.

Andrea Terres

Communications and Digital Specialist

Andrea joins our team as the communication and digital specialist, bringing a background in social media marketing and early education to the CFC Center. 

Lisa Alloway

Grants Compliance Analyst

Lisa joins the CFC Center bringing experience with grants after working at two colleges/universities and a private healthcare foundation.

Kiersten Kelley

Graduate Assistant

Kiersten brings a background in social work, leading groups, and child welfare to the CFC Center.