While the maker culture champions failure, it is important for educators to recognize the impact of failure for students that have experienced high levels of trauma. Situations that may seem like nothing more than a creative struggle, can be an emotional and physical trigger for some students. Carrying over best-practices from trauma-informed classrooms, we will discuss how to use a strengths-based approach to develop programming that allows students exercise initiative responsibility, has integrity, and a sense of accomplishment can not only be more inclusive to students who have experienced trauma, but can also aid in developing those students’ social and emotional skills.