Trauma does not only impact individuals. Whole communities can experience trauma. But by builing supportive environments through protective factors that provide resources for community members and encouraging strong relationships, communities can prevent trauma and build resilience as well. Communities across the country are moving toward becoming trauma-informed. The resources below highlight many of these communities and can act as a roadmap for your city and community.
Community Resilience Cookbook
Learn about the ingredients need to build a trauma-informed community. The Community Resilience Cookbook includes stories from communities the US and Canada about their commitment to treating and preventing ACEs and contribute to building a culture of health. They also provide definitions and other basic information related to the science behind trauma, ACEs, and resilience. By sharing these stories, we hope to spread the lessons learned, build connections, and illustrate how communities can begin the work of healing.
One Kind Word
One Kind Word (OKW) was developed to promote the idea that it is everybody's responsibility to support parents, while at the same time, to protect children. It recognizes the difficulty of parenting and is based on the premise that any parent can have a bad day. Its purpose is to raise public awareness about the issue of parent-child conflict and provide tools to empower strangers to step in using trauma-informed strategies when they see it occurring. Click here for more details.
Front Porch Project
The Front Porch Project (FPP) is a research-supported, community-based initiative based on the belief that prevention of child abuse is everyone’s business. In years past, American front porches were more than convenient sitting places; they served as networking centers where friends and neighbors could look out for neighborhood children and help each other through difficult times. Today, The Front Porch Project brings that same spirit to communities through skills-based training.
In Pennsylvania, The Front Porch Project is offered by Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance (PFSA), a statewide child abuse prevention program.
Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities
Coordinated by the Health Federation of Philadelphia with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The California Endowment, the MARC program brings together 14 communities that are actively working toward building a just, healthy, and resilient world.
Toward a Trauma-Informed City: Challenges and Opportunities in Philadelphia
Sandra Bloom, MD, and the Center for Public Health Practice at Drexel University interviewed 26 leaders in Philadelphia who are working toward developing a trauma-informed city. Watch the videos to learn more!
National Collaborative on Adversity and Resilience
The National Collaborative on Adversity and Resilience was gathered to work toward understanding and responding to the needs of vulnerable populations. Proceedings focused on developing approaches to promote healing from the impact of trauma, violence, and adversity. The charge was to envision and outline a strategy for a national movement on adversity and resilience.
Included in the NCAR Proceedings is our vision of a movement to reduce childhood adversity, promote individual and community resilience, put forth strategies for action, inspire progress in the field, and stimulate engagement among many new partners across the nation.
To view an executive summary of the NCAR report, click here.
To read the full NCAR report, click here.