The purpose of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) is to alleviate the trauma of sexual assault for victims and their families, according to its website.

The center’s mission is to give a voice to victims as well as the community to help change beliefs and attitudes against violence and instill courage for people to speak out.

In 2016, KCSARC created Trauma-Informed Classroom resources for middle and high school educators and most recently in Aug. 2018, it started Launch Pad — those same tools for elementary school educators.

Launch Pad, according to KCSARC’s website, was created with support from Kaiser Permanente and the Best Starts for Kids Initiative.

Trauma-Informed Classrooms first began, according to KCSARC’s website, because then-high school junior Bridget Yule starting facilitating workshops with peers following her experience supporting a friend who had experienced sexual assault.

Yule recognized that teachers and other school staff were in a position to support student survivors, the website added. And she worked closely with KCSARC to create the training for middle and high school staff.

Both of these resources are prevention programs geared toward helping educators identify signs of abuse in students and respond in a way that helps heal, Laurel Redden, marketing communications manager for KCSARC stated in an email.

She added, these programs also help build foundational lessons to help prevent violence including sexual violence.

The center works with schools and school districts throughout the county to go over the programs with educators.

KCSARC also has resources online that educators can use alongside the training the center provides.

The center has already worked with a couple local schools — Cedar River Montessori and Renton Prep — to provide Launch Pad training to those educators.

KCSARC Prevention Services Coordinator Rachel Taylor said the reason for creating another prevention program, this time geared toward educators of Kindergarteners to fifth graders, is due to the differences varying age groups need to be addressed.

“There are different ways to do things with different age groups,” Taylor said.

To learn more about these programs or to schedule a training for your school staff email education@kcsarc.org.

To view the Launch Pad workbook, visit www.kcsarc.org/launch-pad.

To view the Trauma-Informed Classrooms workbook, visit www.kcsarc.org/trauma-informed-classrooms.