Contact the School Crisis Response Team

  • Contact us when your school experiences a student or staff death due to accident, illness, suicide or other tragic event. We can provide support and assistance to help restore the emotional well-being of your school.
     
    Team Coordinator, Brian Skogen
    Cell: 507-828-7955; Email: brian.skogen@canbylancers.org
     
    If unable to reach Brian, contact Amber Bruns:
    Cell: 605-376-8806; Office: 507-337-2946; Email: amber.bruns@swwc.org

Who Are We?

  • Our mission is to provide support, guidance and resources to schools during and after a serious loss. 

    The SWWC School Crisis Response Team was formed in 2011 and provides immediate assistance to local schools in times of traumatic events. The team works with crisis teams and crisis plans already in place at school districts, but team members are specially trained in school crisis response through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). 

    Team members work as school counselors, school psychologists, social workers, teachers, school nurses, and other related positions in school districts throughout the 18 counties of southwest and west central Minnesota. All have been trained on the effects of trauma on student learning, signs and symptoms of distress, interventions, developmental considerations, referral signs, debriefings and team development. 

More Information

Crisis Resource Numbers

    • Crisis Text Line: Text – MN to 741741 for free 24/7 assistance for mental health crisis
    • Suicide Prevention Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
    • Stomp Out Suicide: 651-777-5222
    • McLeod County Mental Health Crisis Response: 320-864-2713 or 952-442-7601
    • Woodland Centers Crisis: 320-231-9158 or 1-800-432-8781
    • Mobile Crisis for Western Mental Health Center 1-800-658-2429

Testimonials

  • In today’s world, the increasing attention given to the need for schools to be prepared to respond to a wide variety of crisis situations has experts in school crisis prevention and intervention emphasizing the importance of having a comprehensive out-of-district School Crisis Team. This expert assistance helps address the safety and mental health needs of students, staff, and families through response and recovery. Crisis events are sudden, uncontrollable, and extremely negative events, such as when RTR had two student deaths in 2019 that had the potential to impact an entire school community. We received an organized and carefully coordinated response from the SWWC School Crisis Response Team to help meet the needs of our district-wide affected individuals.
     
    Although it is important to have an in-house building-level crisis team and ensure that local school resources are the primary providers of crisis team assistance, these regional crisis response teams are extremely important because they have members with more advanced knowledge, expertise, and access to additional resources. Also, as in our situation, our local caregiver(s) knew these two students and were affected greatly by the situation which complicated our ability to respond adequately to the crisis. The RTR School District was greatly blessed to have such a team of experts to help our community move forward through that terrible tragedy.

    David A. Marlette, Superintendent, RTR ISD #2902

    The School Crisis Response Team was very valuable with students and staff members when we experienced the loss of a staff member. It can be quite difficult to navigate these situations when we know the staff member personally. They worked side by side to help our staff ensure all were supported, including supporting our own district crisis support team. The additional resources and variety of perspectives made the difficult task much easier. 

    Richard Schneider, Superintendent, Yellow Medicine East ISD #2190