In addition to the 'Mental Moments' series and player involvement in the community throughout the month of May, the Bills are also providing a grant to an important school.
The Buffalo Bills Foundation provided Niagara Falls High School $10,000 through the Social Justice Grant to address Mental Health. The grant will support the expansion of the Niagara Falls High School Champion Team Program and their collaboration with the University of Buffalo's Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care. The NFHS Champion Team receives training on mental health and trauma first aid, which enables students to navigate traumas related to family, household, gender bias, racial bias, inequity, cultural, structural, and institutional realm. The champion team's training also empowers them to practice and teach resilience, ally ship, inclusion, growth, equity, justice, healing, and cultural humanity.
Trauma-informed care provides the framework for individuals, organizations, and systems to engage in universal precautions for individual, historical and systemic trauma by using the values and principles of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. The UB School of Social Work's Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care (ITTIC) helps organizations and individuals understand the effects of trauma and ensure that service systems do not retraumatize vulnerable populations. Through collaborative partnerships and funded research, ITTIC works with agencies to provide training, consultation, coaching and evaluation to facilitate trauma-informed culture change and meet their organization's goals. Learn more by clicking here.