Andi West
We continue our series on Connected Educators with Sarah Mercado, and Andi West, who serves as Mental Health Coordinator with the Coeur d’Alene School District in North Idaho. In this role, Andi plans and facilitates district wide implementation of social and emotional learning and trauma sensitive practices. Andi is a TBRI Practitioner, TBRI Mentor and the co-founder of the North Idaho Trauma Care Collaborative. Andi’s passion for helping children feel safe really comes through in this episode, and we’re so happy she could share her wisdom with us.
“The most important thing is that every procedure that we put into place, every plan, every idea about how school is going to operate should be viewed through the lens of ‘does this this support or diminish felt safety?’”
LISTEN HERE
Show Notes
Linked references from this episode:
About our guest:
Andi West is a licensed master level social worker and the Mental Health Coordinator with the Coeur d’Alene School District in North Idaho. In this role, Andi plans and facilitates district wide implementation of social and emotional learning and trauma sensitive practices. Andi is a TBRI Practitioner, TBRI Mentor and the co-founder of the North Idaho Trauma Care Collaborative. Andi has a passion for teaching trauma informed care across diverse systems and impacting the lives of vulnerable children.
About our host:
Sarah Mercado is a Training Specialist with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (KPICD). As training specialist, Sarah’s main focus is instructing professionals working with children who have experienced trauma, in Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®). TBRI®, a holistic, attachment-based, and trauma-informed intervention designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children, offers practical tools for caregivers to help those in their care reach their highest potential.
Sarah earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She began her career as a direct care staff working with adolescent boys living in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC). After serving in the RTC for several years, she shifted her focus to foster care, where she was Regional Director for a foster and adoption agency.
Sarah spent 20 years serving youth and families within residential and foster care settings as a direct-care worker and trainer before beginning her work with the Purvis Institute in May 2016. Sarah lives near Austin, TX with her husband, AJ, and their two children.