Emerald Academy Receives Grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund of East Tennessee Foundation

Emerald Academy is pleased to announce it has received a $5,000 grant from the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund of East Tennessee Foundation.

The generous funding will support training that provides knowledge and skills to teachers and staff so they can incorporate changes in the classroom to become more trauma-responsive in Emerald Academy’s learning environments.

“We are incredibly grateful to receive this funding in support of our teachers, and ultimately, our city scholars,” said Dr. Maria Panizo, grants and foundations director for Emerald Charter Schools. “Emerald Academy faculty are dedicated to the school’s mission of preparing urban scholars for the college of their choice and community leadership, and this generous grant will help ensure teachers have additional training and strategies to achieve that mission.”    

Many of the scholars Emerald Academy serves experience toxic stress resulting from a variety of factors such as economic and food insecurity, financial hardships, parents’ job loss, etc.

Teachers will receive training on incorporating the trauma-informed mindset and strategies for regulation, including teaching a social-emotional curriculum with explicit strategies. The training will include:

  • healthy brain development,

  • adverse childhood experiences and trauma,

  • skill-building around strategies to better meet social, emotional, and mental health needs of scholars, and more.

Teachers will obtain the skills to provide students with tools/resources to model and support self-regulation and build relationships. They will also be equipped with a uniform understanding of the impacts of trauma and interventions to help regulate, relate, and reason.

The Community Investment Fund is a partnership between Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the managing and operating contractor of Y-12 National Security Complex, and the East Tennessee Foundation.

Learn more here about this year’s funding for organizations throughout East Tennessee, and find details here about the CNS Y-12 Community Investment Fund of East Tennessee Foundation.

Emerald Academy