Student & Staff Wellbeing

At CARS, we are proud and honored to have worked alongside you for over 15 years, partnering to ensure all members of school communities, from early childhood to higher education, have the space and place to become their fullest selves.

Our track record includes leading a national TTA center for Now Is The Time (Project AWARE, Healthy Transitions, and ReCAST, 2014-2018), supporting the school mental health workforce development (Pacific Southwest MHTTC, 2017-2024), founding and growing a National Child Traumatic Stress Network Category II site, (School Crisis Recovery & Renewal project, 2020-2025), coaching state leaders in 2024 as part of the Comprehensive School Mental Health Policy Academy, providing sustained TA to the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office since 2012 (CCC Health & Wellness, CalWORKs, Veterans Services, EOPS, and NextUp), and serving as the Statewide TA Coordinator for California Behavioral Health Student Support Act grantees (Commission for Behavioral Health, 2025-2028).

While the projects might vary in scale, community, and scope, the following holds no matter what: our approach is relational, constructivist, and healing centered. Our work centers curiosity and care, strengthening connections across divides to promote positive mental health, healing, and renewal for students and the adults who serve them.

Student & Staff Wellbeing Subtopics

Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems Development
Cross-Systems Partnerships
Fostering Healthy School Leadership
Educator Wellness
Crisis Aftermath Navigation
Grief Work (fostering grief sensitivity and leadership skills)
Mental Health Literacy
School Mental Health Workforce Recruitment and Retention
Policy Landscape Analyses
Peer-to-Peer Programs and Support Collaboratives
Youth and Young Adult Mental Health
Sustainability for Student Support Programs and Initiatives

Through conference and event design and delivery, virtual platform knowledge dissemination, skilled facilitation, community-responsive resource creation, learning collaboratives, and more, we’re committed to fostering collaboration among school and education system staff, students, families, and community organizations to build comprehensive support systems anchored in the vision for holistic wellbeing.

Featured Team Members for Student & Staff Wellbeing

Leora Ya’Acova Wolf-Prusan, EdD

Managing Director

Niki Magtoto, MA

Senior Project Manager

Oriana Ides, PPCA, PPS

School Mental Health Training Specialist

The educators and youth-serving folks we work with have begun to speak the thing that we already knew to be true – the adults working with young folks need to slow down and be cared for in order to better lead and support our young folks.
Niki Magtoto, MA
CARS Senior Project Manager