Urban Trauma
A national authority on trauma-informed education
UTHI is a professional training and certification organization equipping educators, counselors, social workers, coaches, healthcare professionals, faith leaders, and community advocates with trauma-informed strategies to help individuals, families, and communities heal and thrive.
200 hours of rigorous, culturally responsive trauma training, practicum experience, certification exam, and alumni network.
Founding cohort $1,997 · Standard $2,997 · Payment plans available
Book a free 30-minute admissions call →Urban Trauma Training, Leadership Training, and Cycle of Trauma™ Training — delivered at scale for school districts, universities, behavioral health agencies, nonprofits, juvenile justice programs, hospitals, faith communities, and government agencies.
Request a training →The Cycle of Trauma™ Framework and Dr. James's Ten-Point Mission System™ — evidence-based, culturally responsive approaches to trauma awareness, intervention, resilience-building, and community transformation.
Learn the frameworks →
Our Founder
A nationally acclaimed trauma-informed educator, speaker, and advocate with over 30 years of experience empowering marginalized youth and transforming high-need school systems. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and college football head coach at Virginia Union University.
Embrace · Educate · Empower
Read the full bio →“Dr. James brought a unique and powerful perspective to the global conversation on healing, resilience, and equity. His message challenged participants to move beyond awareness and toward transformative action.”
UNESCO Global Racial Healing Conference · Paris, France
The Third Rail Podcast
Hosted by Dr. Mark “Coach” James. New episodes on YouTube @Docurbanhealer.
All episodes →Join our newsletter and download the UTHI program guide — certification details, training offerings, and scholarship information.
We create positions of healing by speaking truth to power in education and communities — training educators and leaders to see trauma clearly and respond with care.
Cycle of Trauma™ · Ten-Point Mission System™ · UNESCO Global Racial Healing Conference presenter
Whether you teach, lead, or love a community — there is a place for you here.
200 hours of rigorous, culturally responsive training, practicum, and examination — then a lifelong alumni network.
Founding cohort $1,997 · Standard $2,997 · Payment plans
Explore the certification →Urban Trauma Training, Leadership Training, and Cycle of Trauma™ Training — for school districts, universities, behavioral health agencies, nonprofits, hospitals, faith communities, and government agencies.
See community trainings →One-time or recurring gifts fund scholarships and community trainings. UTHI is a 501(c)(3) — gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Donate today →Meet our founder
A nationally acclaimed trauma-informed educator, speaker, and advocate with over 30 years empowering marginalized youth and transforming high-need school systems — former teacher, administrator, and college football head coach at Virginia Union University.
Embrace · Educate · Empower
Read his story →
Voices from the work
“Dr. James brought a unique and powerful perspective to the global conversation on healing, resilience, and equity. His message challenged participants to move beyond awareness and toward transformative action.”
UNESCO Global Racial Healing Conference · Paris, France
See our impact →Dr. Mark “Coach” James takes on the conversations education avoids. Listen and subscribe on YouTube @Docurbanhealer.
All episodes →Get the free UTHI program guide and monthly notes from Coach James.
The Urban Trauma Healing Institute trains educators, leaders, and communities to break the cycle of trauma — from Richmond classrooms to the UNESCO Global Racial Healing Conference in Paris.
200 hours. Practicum. Examination. An alumni network that lasts. Start with a free 30-minute admissions call.
Founding cohort $1,997 · Standard $2,997
Apply nowUrban Trauma Training. Leadership Training. Cycle of Trauma™ Training. For schools, districts, nonprofits, government, and faith organizations.
Book a trainingDonate, volunteer, partner, or sponsor. Every gift funds scholarships and community healing — tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Join the movementImpact & Evidence · 2026
In 2026 UTHI delivered healing-centered training and student programming in Lunenburg County, Emporia/Greensville County, Petersburg and Richmond. Across those four divisions roughly 2,311 more students are chronically absent than Virginia’s statewide rate would predict. That gap is the work.
918
Educators, counselors and staff trained
1,302
Students reached through keynotes and workshops
2,220
Virginia residents served in total
22
Schools, agencies and community sites
85
Trainings and keynotes delivered
4
Communities: Lunenburg, Emporia/Greensville, Petersburg, Richmond
The figures above are UTHI’s own 2026 delivery totals. Community-condition statistics, such as the absenteeism gap, come from state and federal sources and are reported separately — they are not UTHI results. Participant outcomes are self-reported in pre/post surveys.
The Urban Healer. 30+ years empowering marginalized youth and transforming high-need school systems — former teacher, administrator, and college football head coach at Virginia Union University.
“His message challenged participants to move beyond awareness and toward transformative action.” — UNESCO Global Racial Healing Conference
Meet the founderThe podcast that touches what education won't. Hosted by Dr. Mark “Coach” James — on YouTube @Docurbanhealer.
All episodesThe Urban Trauma Healing Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the critical needs in education by exposing and healing the pain caused by systemic thinking.
Creating positions of healing by speaking truth to power in education and communities.
A national and international standard for trauma-informed education — where every school and community has the tools to heal, build resilience, and thrive.
Through the Cycle of Trauma™ Framework and the Ten-Point Mission System™, we teach evidence-based, culturally responsive approaches to trauma awareness, intervention, resilience-building, and community transformation.
Our Founder
Dr. Mark H. James is a nationally acclaimed trauma-informed educator, speaker, and advocate with over 30 years of experience empowering marginalized youth and transforming high-need school systems. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and college football head coach at Virginia Union University, Dr. James combines lived experience, scholarly rigor, and dynamic storytelling to inspire change.
His signature Embrace · Educate · Empower framework equips educators with practical tools to create healing-centered classrooms that foster resilience and community. As the creator of the Cycle of Trauma™ Framework and the Ten-Point Mission System™, he bridges neuroscience, leadership development, education, organizational culture, and community transformation.
Professional certification and community training grounded in the Cycle of Trauma™ Framework and the Ten-Point Mission System™.
Certification Program
A professional credential built for frontline practitioners — educators, counselors, social workers, coaches, healthcare professionals, faith leaders, and community advocates.
How trauma shows up in urban schools and communities — and practical, culturally responsive strategies for awareness and intervention.
Trauma-informed leadership that improves engagement, culture, communication, and organizational performance.
Breaking generational patterns and building resilience — for individuals, families, organizations, and communities.
Training your entire team? We work with school districts, universities, behavioral health agencies, nonprofits, juvenile justice programs, hospitals, faith communities, and government agencies.
Request a discovery call2026 Regional Impact Report
“To change the result… one must change the mindset.” This page summarizes what UTHI delivered in 2026, the conditions that make the work necessary, and how we measure it.
Lunenburg County · Emporia & Greensville County · Petersburg · Richmond, Virginia
The Urban Trauma Healing Institute · 501(c)(3) public charity · EIN 85-2885241 · Report prepared September 2026
UTHI-reported 2026 delivery
918
Educators, counselors and staff trained
1,302
Students reached through keynotes and workshops
2,220
Virginia residents served in total
22
Schools, agencies and community sites
85
Trainings and keynotes delivered
4
Communities: Lunenburg, Emporia/Greensville, Petersburg, Richmond
In 2026 UTHI carried healing-centered education into four Virginia communities that differ in geography but share a common challenge: children are carrying adversity that schools must respond to, while educators and other frontline adults often face that burden without adequate trauma-informed support.
Virginia as a whole is recovering. Statewide chronic absenteeism has fallen to 14.8 percent. The communities UTHI serves are recovering more slowly: 29 percent in Greensville County, 20.5 percent in Richmond, and 32.5 percent in Petersburg as of December 2024, with one school at 44.62 percent.
Data status: 2026 program-delivery figures are UTHI-reported and presented as reconciled report totals. The underlying attendance, sign-in, engagement and survey records are retained for audit and grant compliance.
Community data · public sources
UTHI’s footprint intentionally pairs urban centers with rural Southside communities where trauma-informed capacity building can be harder to access. These figures describe the population of UTHI’s service area, not UTHI’s caseload.
| Division | Enrollment | Chronic absenteeism | On-time graduation | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunenburg County | 1,577 | 16% | 96% | Rural Southside; the 2024–2028 division plan targets improved attendance |
| Greensville County (Emporia) | 2,017 | 29% | 92% | 1,590 of 2,017 students economically disadvantaged; 1,488 Black students |
| Petersburg City | 4,582 | 32.5% (Dec. 2024); one school 44.62% | 82% | 55% graduation for students with disabilities; 64% for students experiencing homelessness |
| Richmond City | 20,962 | 20.5% (2024–25) | 80% | Virginia School Quality Profile reports an 80% four-year rate |
| Virginia statewide | — | 14.8% (2024–25) | — | Down from the post-pandemic peak |
Community data · not UTHI results
Statewide, 34.4 percent of Virginia children have experienced one or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and 14.9 percent have experienced two or more. Applied to the 29,138 students in UTHI’s four divisions, that points to roughly 10,023 students carrying at least one ACE. Thirteen percent of Virginia children live in poverty.
29,138
Students enrolled across the four divisions
≈6,624
Students chronically absent in those divisions
≈2,311
More than Virginia’s 14.8% statewide rate would predict
≈10,023
Expected to carry at least one adverse childhood experience
≈4,342
Expected to carry two or more
Petersburg’s 2023 Community Health Assessment reported that 23.3 percent of high school students had seriously considered attempting suicide, compared with 16 percent statewide; among male students the figure reached 29.7 percent. One cited analysis reports fewer than 2 percent of children raised in the bottom income quintile reach the top quintile in adulthood, against 21 percent in Fairfax County.
Lunenburg County Public Schools is reported at roughly a 336-to-1 student-to-counselor ratio. In a division that size, building trauma-responsive capacity among classroom teachers is a practical way to extend support beyond the counseling office.
UTHI-reported 2026 delivery
| Locality | Educator/staff trainings | Staff trained | Student sessions | Students reached | Sites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunenburg County | 11 | 324 | 4 | 381 | 3 |
| Emporia / Greensville County | 15 | 126 | 9 | 572 | 3 |
| Petersburg | 8 | 66 | 5 | 125 | 5 |
| Richmond | 22 | 402 | 11 | 224 | 11 |
| Regional total | 56 | 918 | 29 | 1,302 | 22 |
Trauma-informed, healing-centered training that helps teachers and school staff recognize the effects of trauma and respond with practical classroom strategies rather than defaulting to exclusionary discipline.
Interactive sessions focused on self-confidence, critical thinking, mental-health awareness, academic motivation and constructive decision-making.
A secular, education-focused framework covering self-determination, conflict resolution, self-confidence, critical thinking, civic participation, mental-health awareness, and expanded academic and vocational opportunity.
UTHI’s signature framework for trauma awareness, intervention, resilience-building and community transformation.
Participant survey · self-reported
Every engagement includes a brief pre- and post-survey, and 88 percent of participants completed both. These are participant-reported results, not yet independent measures of school outcomes. Building that verification is a 2027 priority.
88%
Of participants completed both pre and post surveys
79%
Reported a greater ability to recognize signs of trauma
84%
Reported more confidence responding to a student in crisis
92%
Would recommend the training to a colleague
89%
Of student participants reported increased self-confidence
Independent research · not UTHI data
The evidence below explains why trauma-responsive, restorative and sustained school-based approaches are relevant to the outcomes these communities are trying to improve.
A national adolescent study found ACE exposure associated with substantially higher odds of suspension, lower grades and chronic absenteeism after adjusting for sociodemographic variables. Elementary research reports a dose-response relationship between ACE exposure and attendance, behavior and academic performance.
A University of Michigan policy brief summarizes multi-district evidence of reduced middle-school out-of-school suspensions after restorative-practice implementation. A 2024 cluster randomized trial of 2,248 students across 18 schools found no significant one-year effect on overall school-climate perceptions, while students who reported greater exposure to restorative practices also reported more positive perceptions of support and disciplinary structure. That distinction is why UTHI certifies practitioners rather than delivering one-off in-service days.
RAND’s evaluation of restorative practices in Pittsburgh Public Schools and broader trauma-informed school research indicate that multi-year, system-level implementation is the appropriate scale for testing changes in discipline and school climate.
A systematic review of secondary-school teacher burnout estimated substantial levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low professional efficacy. Research on secondary traumatic stress documents similar risk among educators working with high-need student populations.
Peer-reviewed economic analyses estimate very large lifetime and annual health burdens associated with adverse childhood experiences. These do not put a dollar value on UTHI’s program; they show the scale of the public-health burden that prevention and early intervention seek to reduce.
UTHI’s measurement framework separates reach, learning gains, school-level outcomes and sustainability. The goal is to move from participation and self-report measures toward outcome reporting that can be independently verified with partner data.
| Domain | Method | Reporting approach |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Attendance rosters and sign-in records, de-duplicated across repeat participants | Per locality and engagement |
| Learning gains | Brief pre/post surveys on trauma awareness, confidence and healing-centered practice | Percent showing gains |
| School outcomes | Where divisions share data: discipline referrals, out-of-school suspensions and chronic absenteeism, before and after | Annually, with division consent |
| Sustainability | Certification completion, practicum performance, continued practice among alumni, staff wellbeing | Per cohort |
Disclosure standard. Community-condition statistics on this page describe the environment in which UTHI works. They are drawn from external public sources and are not presented as UTHI program results. UTHI’s 2026 program figures are reported separately, and the underlying records are retained for audit, grant compliance and future independent verification.
What a gift purchases · not outcomes achieved
| Gift | What it funds |
|---|---|
| $1,997 | One full Certified Trauma-Healing Specialist™ seat at the founding-cohort rate: 200 hours of training, practicum, examination and lifelong alumni access for one educator from Petersburg, Emporia, Lunenburg or Richmond |
| $999 | Half a certification seat, paired with a second donor or a district contribution |
| $500 | Scholarship support toward a seat for an educator in a division that cannot fully fund professional development |
| $250 | Training materials and Ten-Point Mission System™ curriculum for one classroom cohort |
| $19,970 | A full 10-educator regional cohort — enough certified practitioners to begin seeding trauma-informed practice across a small division |
The leverage. Using Virginia’s 13.9-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio as a conservative benchmark, a $1,997 certification seat works out at about $144 per student represented by that staffing ratio in the first year, or roughly $29 per student per year across a five-year teaching tenure.
This is a cost-allocation illustration, not a measured program outcome.
Fund a certification seat2027 targets · not yet achieved
A brick-and-mortar base for training, referral and family navigation within 12 to 18 months.
Move from episodic engagements toward sustained, multi-year implementation in Emporia/Greensville and Lunenburg.
Certified Trauma-Healing Specialists™ drawn from the four communities, so regional capacity stays local.
Agreements that let UTHI report verified changes in referrals, suspensions and absenteeism rather than relying only on participant-reported measures.
Continue development toward hands-on educational centers serving Petersburg and Southside Virginia.
| 2027 target | Goal |
|---|---|
| Educators certified as Trauma-Healing Specialists™ from the region | 12 — a founding regional cohort |
| Divisions under a signed multi-year training agreement | 4 of 4 |
| Divisions with a data-sharing agreement for verified outcomes | 1 — UTHI’s first verified outcome baseline |
| Educator and staff training engagements delivered | 8 |
| Student keynotes and workshops delivered | 10 |
| Richmond resource center and navigator hub | Open within 12–18 months |
These targets emphasize depth, local capacity and stronger outcome verification rather than maximizing one-time participation counts. Twelve certified educators across four localities represent one small regional cohort; the single data-sharing agreement is the mechanism that can move future reporting toward independently verifiable school outcomes.
“Dr. James brought a unique and powerful perspective to the global conversation on healing, resilience, and equity. His message challenged participants to move beyond awareness and toward transformative action.”
UNESCO Global Racial Healing Conference
“The presentation resonated with both students and staff. Dr. James connected leadership, accountability, resilience, and trauma-informed practices in a way that was meaningful and memorable.”
Greg Lilly · School Principal
“He has a unique ability to break down complex legal and policy issues into practical insights that leaders can immediately apply.”
Andrew Rhoden, Esq. · National Convention, Texas
UTHI is a 501(c)(3) public charity and gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Dr. Mark “Coach” James, Founder · docjames@coachjamesspeaks.com · EIN 85-2885241
Every figure on this page is drawn from the 2026 Regional Impact Report, which lists 25 numbered public sources with links.
Dr. Mark “Coach” James takes on the conversations education avoids. Watch on YouTube @Docurbanhealer.
Healing is a community effort. Here are four ways to stand with UTHI.
Fund scholarships and community trainings with a one-time or recurring gift.
Give now →Share your time and skills — events, outreach, mentorship, and more.
Raise your hand →Schools, districts, nonprofits, government agencies, and faith organizations — bring UTHI training to your people.
Book a discovery call →Organizational sponsorships underwrite cohorts, events, and The Third Rail podcast.
Talk sponsorship →Join the newsletter and get the free UTHI program guide.
Your gift funds scholarships for frontline practitioners and brings trauma-healing training to schools and communities that need it most.
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Prefer to give another way? Write to docjames@coachjamesspeaks.com.
Questions about programs, partnerships, speaking, or giving — we'd love to hear from you.
11 S. 12th Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Last updated: September 2026
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Last updated: September 2026
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