Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 was awarded $6,300 from the Schools Grants and Awards Programs from the Highmark Foundation. The funds will be used to equip some Therapeutic Emotional Support (TES) classrooms with the Ripple Effects social-emotional learning curriculum. Ripple Effects was implemented at Colonial Academy in the Spring of 2021 and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.
Ripple Effects is a web-based program that consists of 428 learning modules that contain various topics that are meaningful to adolescents and address some of the non-academic barriers to school success. It easily aligns with some of the other treatment options available at CIU 20, such as Restorative Practices, Trauma-Informed Approaches, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.