Social Services Support    

The Good Shepherd’s students – all from families with socioeconomic challenges – are increasingly victims of many social forces that negatively affect their role as students. Their families are very often in a state of change and until these changes become stabilized, in whatever form, the child's unmet physical and emotional needs will continue to interfere with their ability to learn and adjust in school.
 
How the Social Services Support Program Works: With the student primarily in mind, the Good Shepherd Social Services Program works to address many of the barriers to a child’s ability to learn – including mental and/or physical challenges experienced by the student, family issues, housing issues, and safety issues.
 
Program Design: The Good Shepherd Social Services Program has five interdependent elements to ensure students’ health, safety and success: 

• Services to Students with Special Needs: Facilitating special education assessments and educational planning meetings; working with families to address living situations that negatively affect a child’s adjustment to school; preparing social and developmental histories on children with disabilities; counseling; referral (and follow-up) for community services; and any assistance for the child and faculty in developing positive behavioral intervention strategies.
• Services to Students:  Provision of crisis intervention, development of interventions to increase academic success; assisting with conflict resolution and anger management; helping the child develop appropriate social interaction skills and assisting the child in understanding and accepting self and others.
• Services to Parents and Families: Working with families to facilitate their support in their children’s school adjustment; alleviating family stressors to enable the child to function more effectively in school and community; assisting family to access programs available to students with special needs; and assisting family in accessing and utilizing community resources.
• Services to School Personnel: Providing staff with essential information to better understand factors affecting a student’s performance and behavior (cultural, societal, economic, familial, health, etc.); assessing students with mental health concerns, developing staff in-service training programs, assisting teachers with behavior management; and providing direct support to staff.
• Services to the Good Shepherd School: Identification and coordination of community resources to meet students’ needs; advocating for improved community services; helping the school respond effectively to each child’s need.

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