Summary produced by: Leslie Alvarez | Alyssa Besser | Sofia Escalante | Sarah Levine | Thalia Philip (MPH Candidates, Mailman School of Public Health)
Speakers, Organizations, and Contact Information
Dr. Diana (Denni) Fishbein | Director of Neuro Prevention Research, University of North Carolina - Frankfurt Graham Child Development Institute, and Co-Director & President, National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives
Jesse Kohler | Executive Director, Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice
Matthew Portell | Principal, Fall-Hamilton School, and Director of Communities, PACEs Connection
Judge Sheila Calloway | Judge, Juvenile Court, Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County
Treva Johnson | National Public Policy Director, Family Focused Treatment Association
Dr. David Willis | Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Social Policy
Dr. Anthony Biglan | Senior Scientist, Oregon Research Institute, and Founder & Director, Values to Action
Dan Press | Co-Founder & General Counsel, Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice
Ingrid Cockhren | CEO, PACEs Connection
Jen Curt | Director of Government Affairs, Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice
Laura Porter | Co-Founder, ACE Interface
Workshop Agenda
00:08:29 | Matthew Portell | Educational Sector: Paradigm Shift Role Plays
00:22:15 | Judge Sheila Calloway | Justice System: Restructuring Court Programs to Eliminate Disparities
00:37:55 | Treva Johnson | Child Welfare: Advocating for Family-Focused Treatment
00:55:50 | Dr. David Willis | Transforming Health Care Systems from the Inside Out
01:14:20 | Dr. Anthony Biglan | Community Organizing: Values to Action
01:35:35 | Dan Press | Advocacy and Communities of Practice
01:44:59 | Ingrid Cochran | Networking and the Social Accelerator: Creating Resilience Communities
02:01:32 | Jen Curt | Community Project Workshops
02:38:14 | Laura Porter | Self-Healing Communities and ACE Interface
Workshop Overview
Coalition-building across sectors is important to work towards a resilient, trauma-informed, holistic care system. This workshop brings together experts across childcare systems to discuss issues in their individual sectors, building organizations/systems in a trauma-informed manner, and how to coalesce across sectors. Specifically, the workshop has five presentations which explore education, court, child welfare, and healthcare systems.
Speakers discuss how they create trauma-informed organizations through building relationships, implementing policy, and committing to continual advocacy. Some of the ways they advance their work is through improving relational health, knowing data and sharing it frequently, practicing trauma-informed practices among staff to foster motivation, and implementing task-sharing among teams.
The workshop continues by exploring pathways to begin coalition-building. Both CTIPP and PACEs Connection provide direct links to local and state coalitions, networking among coalitions, and technical assistance to start, strengthen, or sustain coalitions. CTIPP also provides background information on the process of applying for federal funding through the Community Funding Project. The workshop concludes with a note on how systems thinking can help fuel coalition building as a mode of strengthening bridges between social networks.
Why is this Workshop Important?
Trauma-informed care work does not happen in isolation. In order to truly tackle childhood adversity, discrimination, education, criminal legal, social welfare, and healthcare, sectors must come together and coalesce. A systems-thinking approach is vital to understanding how coalitions can form and where potential opportunities are for intervention. This workshop offers insight into relationship-building among sectors and provides resources to get involved locally, state-wide, and nationally by highlighting existing coalitions and funding.
Highlights
00:13:35 - 00:14:04 | Matthew Portell | “Trauma can be perceived differently by different people, especially by life experience… Trauma can serve as an umbrella to describe the inability of an individual or community to respond in a healthy way physically, emotionally, and mentally to acute or chronic stress.”
00:41:13 - 00:41:36 | Treva Johnson | “The most essential part of being an effective advocate is knowing what you're talking about. Know your issues; do your homework. You have to take the responsibility to know those issues, to know the data, and most importantly to understand the entire issue and not just how it affects you or your agency, but the entire perspective .”
00:41:39 - 00:41:58 | Treva Johnson | “Share often and share everywhere. Our voices are the most important and powerful tool that we have when we're talking about advocacy. The more voices that we hear in unison, the powerful and greater that change becomes and the more meaningful and lasting we see that change.”
00:46:50 - 00:47:01 | Treva Johnson | “This goes without saying, but relationships are vital. True, sustainable advocacy is built on the strength of those relationships, and I just cannot stress that enough.”
01:55:27 - 01:56:10 | Ingrid Cochran | “There is a lot of need for an understanding of how to work together because when we look at trauma initiatives, resilience initiatives, we're talking about communities, and we live in a polarizing time and so when we think about tackling all of the issues that communities need to tackle, racism, discrimination, health disparities, and of course adversity in childhood, there is a lot there that comes to the table that people need to grapple with and in order to do that, first, you need to have everyone at the table, and you need to be able to have difficult conversations.”
02:38:37 - 02:39:21 | Laura Porter | “I want to open by talking about this word ‘coalesce.’ ‘Coalesce’ means to grow together and think of it as we're uniting people through a common goal, but we're doing it through learning and growth. So, a coalition is put together for a specific reason, we might want to put one together for creating a healing centered community, but that's pretty abstract. Coalitions usually come together because there is some significant need in the community or in the interest group and then they go on a journey together to learn together. We have to think of coalitions like we think of communities. They're living systems.”
02:39:29 - 02:39:54 | Laura Porter | “So, when we think about growing together, what are we growing? We're growing the capacity to solve problems, which means we have to build into our coalition development some civic skill building, some building of and modeling healthy relationships and trauma-informed ways of interacting with human beings inside of the group, or the community.”
Moderators:
Dr. Diana (Denni) Fishbein, President, National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives
Jesse Kohler, Executive Director, CTIPP
Speakers:
Educational Sector: Paradigm Shift Role Plays
8:29: Mathew Portell, Fall-Hamilton School Principal and PACEs Connection
Justice System: Restructuring Court Programs to Eliminate Disparities
22:15: Judge Sheila Calloway
Child Welfare: Advocating for Family-Focused Treatment
37:55: Treva Johnson, National Public Policy Director at Family Focused Treatment Association
Transforming Health Care Systems from the Inside Out
55:50: Dr. David Willis, Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Social Policy
Community Organizing: Values to Action
1:14:20: Anthony Biglan, Oregon Research Institute Values
Advocacy and Communities of Practice
1:35:35: Dan Press, Co-Founder, CTIPP
Networking and the Social Accelerator: Creating Resilience Communities
1:44:59: Ingrid Cochran, CEO at PACEs Connection
Community Project Workshops (earmarks)
2:01:32: Jen Curt, Director of Government Affairs at CTIPP
Self-Healing Communities and ACE Interface
2:38:14: Laura Porter, Co-Founder of ACE Interface
Educational Sector: Paradigm Shift Role Plays
Mathew Portell, Fall-Hamilton School Principal and PACEs Connection
8:40: Just three weeks ago, I was serving as the Principal at Fall-Hamilton Elementary School in Nashville, TN, but given the opportunity, I'm now the director of communities with PACEs Connection. This work is a movement. It's about us, moving the work forward.
9:14: I want to start out by saying, between people that I worked with, schools that I have helped transition into understanding the complexities of trauma-informed education, and those advocates around the country, it really comes down to this…it comes down to is its brain science and more.
9:54: Paradigm shifts happen when we actually base it in fact and present that to those in positions to allow these paradigms to shift. I would say to anyone that you have to start with this PACEs science, understand where this movement started, and know where this movement is going.
10:20: We have to have people understand that this is beyond the ACE study. That's what an avenue and conduit for a lot of people, including myself, to understand the impacts of adversity, but we're moving past that.
10:36: We also have to talk about the impact of brain and toxic stress I think right now more than ever, we have more opportunity and education to start having this conversation…the opportunities have been developed out of the pandemic where now mental health and stress and trauma are now being talked about in ways that they've never been talked about in the field of education.
11:02: We also have to move past, "it's just about the brain" and understand the influence of the body, the physiological response and not just the neurological response.
11:23: If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, all I asked them to do was get a pencil out and next thing I know, they're throwing a desk So again, basing it in the PACEs science, but also understanding how ACEs are passed down from generation to generation…and looking at the historical aspects of that, the historical trauma and intergenerational trauma that has happened in communities and certain sectors, certain areas, within racism, within the experience of our historical context, and that is including the indigenous, looking at the impact of [LGBTQIA2S+] students So, talking about how this plays out over time and not just in the moment.
12:15: Understanding the power of resilience, how the brain and body can heal. It's not just about what has happened. It's also about what can happen. I think the "P" in PACEs is the really exciting part of the work of PACEs Connection and one of the reasons that I felt so motivated to join; it's not just the adversity, it's also looking at the positive interactions.
13:08: The second thing I want to tell you and that I have found to be successful in those that I've worked with and the colleagues that I work next to in this field, is data tells the story.
13:35: I'm going to step back for just a second and say I think it's also important to have an aligned understanding of what trauma is I've also learned that trauma can be perceived differently by different people, especially by life experience. So, I think having a general understanding that trauma can serve as an umbrella to describe the inability of an individual or community to respond in a healthy way physically, emotionally, and mentally to acute or chronic stress. That was actually given by the Washington State Office of Superintendents.
14:19: So, when we get to data, I want to share with you that I think when we're advocating in schools it's really important to know that children who experience trauma and do not have a support system are two and a half times more likely to fail a grade in school without supports, they're more likely to score lower on standardized assessments, they're more likely to have struggles in receptive and expressive language, they're suspended and expelled more often, and they're more frequently placed in special education That data pieces came from the National Traumatic Stress Network.
15:09: The ACLU and UCLA's Civil Rights Project brought some things to light that I think educators need to be aware of…In 2015 and 2016, the Office of Civil Rights noticed that over 96,000 schools were in a study and 11 million days were lost…11 million days were lost due to exclusionary discipline practices.
15:51: We have to understand that this is tangible data. Another one is that there is inequitable access to instruction because there are disparities in discipline practices and that primarily finds through the over representation of Black youth and student with disabilities. So now we're talking about Civil Rights practices.
16:19: There are 10 million students who attend schools with an SRO with no social worker. We have to think about those pieces. If we have students that we know especially now that this conversation has happened…we now know that it's an opportunity to share some of these data points.
16:46: The Counsel for School Counselors says that the ideal is one counselor for 250 kids…and actually nationally for closer to 444 kids to one counselor. That means that 36 million students are enrolled in schools that don't meet a ratio.
17:22: If we know we have kids who are coming in with trauma, stress and impacted by life experiences, we have to be able to think about healing.
17:36: If you see at the top of the slide, I put intent vs. outcome. I think it's time in education that we start having conversations in education about the intent versus the outcome of the production.
17:55: Unfortunately, sometimes the policies, practices, and actions of schools end up hurting kids. Schools can traumatize children. That is another avenue of the conversation of the intent. What is the intent of your classroom. What is the intent of your interaction at school? What is the intent of your principal?
18:30: I can tell you, that in most cases that will not be the case that kids are absolutely being impacted by the policies, the practices of schools.
18:48: When I put actionable pedagogy, I mean moving from compliance to connection Both relationally, and pedagogically.
19:19: We have to move beyond compliance into connection. When I say actionable pedagogy, I mean relationship-focused community based. What I mean by that is, for example, there is a widely used method in education that feels that reinforcing students with a ticket or an object, or something, that builds intrinsic motivation.
19:47: Dr. Bruce Perry's most recent work has shown that transactional interactions, which means I'm giving you something and telling you what you did well, versus relational interactions, my authentic connection to you as a fellow human, have two different outcomes.
20:05: Even if my own school, we had a study done by Vanderbilt University, where they studied the same thing. It was found that those relational interactions when authentic in support have the greatest outcomes of success.
20:20: So, I think it starts with the so what, the research, and it has to move into the now what.
20:47: I want to reiterate; the system isn't broken. The system is…operating exactly how it is by design Education by design wasn't for every kid. We have to realize the historical context to the structures and systems that are schools are developed on.
Justice System: Restructuring Court Programs to Eliminate Disparities
Judge Sheila Calloway
22:40: I think it's so telling, and I absolutely love former principal Matthew Portell…him ending his session talking about how the justice system, what I like to call the criminal system, operates as it was designed and the prison to pipeline is real.
23:05: I've been a juvenile court justice since 2014 and it was mission when I started, I was going to change all of that. I was going to get rid of any disparities in our system, I was going to make sure that everybody treated on the even scale, I was going to get rid of the school-to-prison pipeline…I want to start off by saying, in all honesty, I have to be transparent with you all, that didn't happen. In the 8 years I have been a judge that didn't happen.
23:43: I think about our roles with schools and the justice system and the community, and number one, we have to be honest and transparent with one another in order to get to a point where we can start making these differences and perhaps, we will achieve things.
24:35: As we learn to be transparent, we also have to come with the understanding that there a lot of us that are in this, as Matt said, and nobody in the justice system, in the criminal system, or the education system, nobody is out to treat children badly, or to have children hurt, but we have to recognize that we have certain limitations We have limitations on money, and everybody says how do you do all of these changes when you can't get funding to take care of them We learned that you just have to keep up the work even without doing it.
25:13: So, the thing that we started off was making sure we knew where we were and where we wanted to be. We want to be that court that prevents problems, that promotes the positive potential of everyone that works in the building and that pursues fairness and hope.
25:29: In order to get there, similar to what Matt said, you have got to know where you are and then where you need to be. You've got to have your data, which is key, you've got to make sure that you understand everything that operates, for us it was learning who our partners were in the community Learning who we could call on to say, we've got to make a difference in this area And then making sure that we understand…trauma, we understand what that is We understand child development and not just understanding the brain science…but moving on, what do we do next and move beyond this.
26:13: Absolutely believing in the science, but there are a lot of people in these systems, in the criminal systems, in the justice systems who don't believe, no matter how much I tell them it doesn't help you to stand on the bench and yell at a kid, it's not going to change their behavior, they don't understand that nor do they believe that.
26:38: For me, the first steps of making sure that I have a trauma-informed court system through our programs is that I had to make sure my staff was understanding If we did this is a sense of brick by brick, laying our foundation…where we needed to go for our system We had to make sure that we were aligning all of our staff members with their strengths, their goals, and their passions.
27:24: Doing a lot of internal work to make sure that everybody was feeling like they were being treated fairly Because if my staff isn't doing it then they're not going to care to do it for the people they serve.
27:38: We did that through other ways in supporting employees with their personal situations, making sure that we had positive and encouraging attitude towards accommodations, offering the employee assistance program without anybody having to take leave…they can just have that opportunity.
27:58: We did a lot of team building activities, fun group activities, we do a monthly newsletter that recognizes our staff and gives them updates as to what's going on, we do court wide celebrations to make sure people are involved.
28:12: The biggest thing that we had to make sure that we were educating our staff about a lot of training, about ACEs, about trauma motivational interviewing, poverty simulations, all of those things that I need to make sure that they are operating and doing the things that they need to do for our clients that we serve, that they absolutely understood that they were getting the proper training to do it right.
28:39: We definitely had to do a different take on who was hiring We wanted to make sure we were bringing in those people that understood the folks that we're serving, that understood traumatic natures of the jobs that we're working at, and also understand the need for self-care People who can be compassionate and empathetic but have absolutely good boundaries and understanding the backgrounds of our children and our families that we serve.
29:12: So, in order to absolutely have a trauma-informed court that could help to eliminate some of the disparities that we see, we partnered with a local organization called the Family Center…they had a grant to work with different organizations making it more trauma-informed Our vision through that project was to have a trauma-informed court system that identifies individuals who have experienced trauma, ensures the provision of appropriate intervention services, and improves the health and wellbeing of youth, families, staff, and the Nashville community.
30:39: The next steps we have for our Resilience Committee was also to develop an action plan of areas that we needed to develop to organize assessments for the entire team to make sure that we had the full staff support in carrying out our action plans and communicate what they were doing on a regular basis and always be open to feedback.
31:17: There were definitely challenges that we had in coming to restructure our court and our court programs It took a long time, and we're still working on building trust with our staff members Things happen and staff sometimes don't understand And in order for us to truly change the programs that we're working on, we have to be able to build that staff trust.
31:43: Sometimes I have a picture in my mind of things I want to accomplish, and I want to do, and I have trouble communicating that with the entire staff and so that's one of the challenges over time.
31:56: We also have a challenge with the community and the community's misunderstanding of what it truly means to be a trauma-informed court. We have a particular news media source that whenever a child is arrested or charged with something very serious, they are constantly sending out a message that they will just go down to juvenile court and Judge Calloway will give them cookies and milk without understanding truly what it means to be trauma-informed And trauma-informed doesn't mean that I give people cookies and milk everyday although that might be a part of it, however, it is that we are able to hold people responsible for the consequences of their actions, but we do it in a way that is healthy for that child, for that family, so that they can learn from that mistake, and they can move on and be successful in our community.
32:50: The way that we learn how to do it faces the way that some of the public misunderstanding is about it, is we do it in a way that we are encouraging people to change and helping them to build their resilience while we're building our staff's resilience.
33:10: Another of the barriers that we had were involving staff in decision-making while still getting things done in a timely manner and making sure that our work environment and our space issues are trauma-informed when we're in a very non-trauma-informed type building. A court room and court setting are not the best type of trauma-informed of place to be.
33:53: We've had a lot of bumps on the road, had a lot of community issues and partners that haven't always been on board, however, we've had a lot of success. And what we know is that slow and steady wins that race and that is the thing that we are doing We are taking our time to make sure we are providing the best trauma-informed services.
34:19: In doing that, we have seen a drastic decrease in juvenile crime throughout our county By the end of 2013 to the end of the 2020, juvenile crime in Davidson County had decreased by 63% In 2021 those numbers are still about the same.
35:08: Even beyond that, we are diverting a large number of youths from the system completely. We want to eliminate our disparities by not putting children in our system. So, when there is a possible case or complaint against a youth, we will divert them from our system and not prosecute them, but work with our community partners to provide care for these youth within the community.
35:39: So, for all of the cases that we diverted in the years of 2017 and 2018, we are averaging only between 6 and 8% of those youth coming back into the system at a later date…so we are finding that it is absolutely imperative that we do not put people in our system so that they can be successful in our community.
36:25: For successful children within our community, we have to make sure that we are providing the best trauma-informed services from every end of our courthouse from one end to the next.
Child Welfare: Advocating for Family Focused Treatment
Treva Johnson, National Public Policy Director at Family Focused Treatment Association
39:52: Although my focus today is really going to around child welfare in general, the ideas that I'm going to be highlighting and the resources I'm sharing and things that we're going to be talking about are really adaptable, they're universal, and they can be used in any advocacy campaign.
40:06: Grassroots that is what we're known for within FFTA, and within several of the other associations and agencies that we work with. Grassroots is finding the strength in numbers…using that strength to impact real and lasting change. It is the most powerful form of advocacy All legislators, federal, state, and local are politicians and their continued success depends on their ability to engage with and satisfy their constituency It is the most powerful thing as a committed group of citizens that can change the world, that believe that they can change the world.
40:58: Some tips that I wanted to share today, a few ideas that we have found to be successful in the campaigns that we have not only hosted but supported across the country and have been really been effective in a number of ways.
41:13: Number one, and you've already heard this from the previous two speakers, know what you're talking about. Educate yourself. The most essential part of being an effective advocate is knowing what you're talking about. Know your issues and do your homework. You have to take the responsibility to know those issues, to know the data, and most importantly to understand the entire issue and not just how it affects you or your agency, but the entire perspective.
41:38: We say to folks, share often and share everywhere. Our voices are the most important and powerful tool that we have when we're talking about advocacy. The more voices that we hear in unison, the greater and more powerful that change becomes and the more meaningful and lasting we see that change.
41:58: Finally…follow up and then follow up again. Reach out periodically to ensure that you maintain that relationship. Once you have that relationship you maintain it. Something that Judge Calloway said that I want to piggyback on is sharing events and successes. You want to be sure that you're not just calling when you need something…sharing those events that are also meaningful so that you have a true relationship with those folks that you're going to be working with to change the system and to change the world.
43:01: Developing and distributing and sticking to clear, concise talking points. You've got to have a clear message, you've got to have objectives, and you've got to be sure that you've discussed this with the other advocates in your campaign.
43:19: We host an annual advocacy event…one of the things that we do before this event that is normally held on Capitol Hill but it has been virtual the last two years, is coming up with talking points, we call those our key messages… that's a lot in and of itself because again as I mentioned we have 500 member agencies that provide a vast array of services and everything is important when you're apart of that agency We usually come up with three to five key messages. These are the points that we're going to be talking to our members of Congress about when we do either are in person or virtual visit with the hill staff and the Congressional members.
44:09: In addition to the key message or those talking points, we also develop a digital leave behind, it used to be paper, but we're saving trees, it's a digital leave behind. We have our clear, concise talking points, or key messages, for our advocacy groups, and we have our leave-behinds, for the members of Congress that they meet with, and usually about three weeks before our event, we actually have an webinar and we go over our key messages, we go over our leave behind, we go over basic rules of the road when you're having those meetings and how long they should take and make sure everyone is sticking to the points.
45:03: Again, stories are powerful. You all know this. Consider having those real-life stories when you're going to take your message across Short videos, Instagram stories, anything that can really hammer that point home.
45:20: We at FFTA partner with the National Foster Care Month Campaign and this year, it's in May every year, and this year the theme for National Foster Care Month is relative and kinship caregivers, and if you've gone to that website, you're going to see that there are a lot of initiatives and resources and information…but there's also video stories And those video stories of grandparents raising their grandchildren, and cousins and siblings raising siblings, and neighbors down the street that took in these children as part of their family to raise, those are the most powerful things on that website, and they really make a difference when we're going to go to our legislators this year to talk about kinship and relative caregivers and the support that they need.
46:50: This goes without saying, but relationships are vital. True, sustainable advocacy is built on the strength of those relationships, and I just cannot stress that enough. A consistency of the message, a compelling story, and that real data that Matthew mentioned to back it up.
47:28: Common bonds We all have them. Sometimes it takes a little homework to realize what they are.
48:48: One of our focus groups is a trauma-informed care focus group. When I was talking to the focus group folks about this webinar today I asked if anyone had any suggestions, anything that they would really like for me to share, and without even knowing that I was going to be talking about public-private partnerships, one of our member agencies in Indiana said, you know, public-private partnerships make all of the difference here in my home state.
50:13: Treva discussed FFTA's annual Public Policy Institute, held May 17 & 18, 2022, and the Dr. Laura Boyd Advocate of the Year Award, of which Julia Kesler, MA, LSW was awarded in 2021 as the award's first recipient.
54:14: A couple of closing thoughts…Julia said, advocacy is everyone's responsibility and that is so very true When I was talking to our focus group on trauma-informed care, Kelly Gunnoe of West Virginia as well, she shared that legislators want to feel human and not like a bridge between a problem and solution Talk to them as such and they'll want to talk to you about your problem and their role in the solution Finally, Dr. Laura Boyd said there is no policy without advocacy Advocacy never sunsets.
Transforming Health Care Systems from the Inside Out
Dr. David Willis, Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Social Policy
56:22: You all know the science of prevention really looks way upstream as to the power that goes on in those relational, dyadic, bonded, attachment, emotional connections, interactive safe, stable, and nurturing relationships so very early And the science is compelling that those fundamental foundational relationships thrive the development of health, development of educational capacities, social and emotional wellbeing, better mental health, engagement in communities, workforce, and work capacities, and so many fundamental relational capacities and skills are built by those very fundamental experiences.
57:22: Our group has been focused deeply on, and what is that environment of relationships, what are the elements and critical components of those early relationships that build health, development, and wellbeing, and increasingly are recognized to counter toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences and the like.
57:46: I'm trusting that you all also recognize that we're moving far beyond just thinking about adversity and adverse childhood experiences as limiting, but rather thinking deeply about the protective forces of positive childhood experiences simultaneously, in fact the mitigating force, of powerful, connective relationships can mitigate against adverse childhood experiences is compelling.
58:30: One would say that relational health is both protective against adversity, but also promotive to development and wellbeing. And that is what is ever most exciting in our field of child healthcare.
58:45: I've been involved in the field of child healthcare for 15 years and building beyond a knowledge of adversity and moving to resiliency courses, the promotion/prevention courses, and harnessing the power of relational experiences.
59:19: Just this year, in August, Andy Gardner and team, put out this new I would say seminal policy paper that calls for focusing on safe, stable, and nurturing and primary care to buffer adversity and build resiliency, but here's the key statement, pediatric care is on the cusp of a paradigm shift that could reprioritize clinical activities, rewrite research agendas, and realign our collective advocacy.
59:53: That's an accelerator and an opportunity as the title says to promote relational health, and I would argue a focus on early relational health, is now here to stay and captures…a new term for some of you, but not a new concept It builds upon the concepts…child development, infant mental health, and neurodevelopment, early relational health though, and we've been very intentional to focus on the centrality of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships because they are the key drivers of building health, assuring development, and maintaining and promoting social wellbeing and isn't that really essential now, in the face of growing impacts of the stress of the pandemic and the growing mental health crisis, the crisis our country has as a society thinking about crisis of connection, all of that is begging for our focus on these connecting elements of early relational health.
1:01:05: Early relational health is foundational, and it's foundational for both the caregiver and a child, it's dynamic, that two-way nature of these fundamental, earliest relationships affects two generational health, they also predate those moments of wellbeing that have long-term impact.
1:01:41: So, we consider this a movement of this paradigm shift in child healthcare that is really calling out a new way of operating.
1:03:00: Dr. Willis discusses the work of Dr. Martha Welch and the Welch Emotional Connection Scale, and the four elements of mutual attraction, mutual vocal communication, mutual facial expressiveness, and mutual sensitivity/reciprocity.
1:03:55: From a health system view, more and more efforts are being focused on this relational freedom. Two years ago at the Center for the Study of Social Policy…we did a survey into the early childhood field, learning that there's already a lot going on, the least of which is outreach and need networks…there are supporting efforts reimaging child healthcare around building first relationships in pediatrics, they keystones of development building off of the mind in the making work are being advanced into residency training, and championed across residencies programs across the country in pediatrics.
1:04:53: There's a movement in child healthcare to become team based in the way that it's not simply one pediatrician in one family, but rather a team that builds out the support structures and partnering with things that uses additional team members focused on this developmental promotion relational health effort identifying the needs of families connecting to communities.
1:06:16: Dr. Willis shares a slide that discusses Rethinking the Pediatric Primary Care Team.
1:07:17: Our relational health work is advancing from equity first, partnering with the family, too, and engaging deeply with the community and expanding that medical home to connect with the community itself This is where that relational health workforce opportunity is growing, and the connection is really a social determinant of health A mother and baby that are isolated and alone must be considered an emergency So mobilizing communities where families are neighbors in communities, where informal systems of support surround new families with new babies, where's there is an intentional effort to make sure that every new baby and family has the supports they need try and counter the vulnerabilities that they face either historically, either by racial struggles, either by poverty, or housing and the like, but to be very intentional to recognize that supporting the foundational relationships of families by addressing the community needs that would otherwise disrupt a family's hope for wellbeing is the next stage of all of this work moving forward.
1:09:00: Dr. Willis discusses the Reach Out & Read program.
1:11:18: Dr. Willis discusses the policy goals of Early Relational Health, including Equity; Economic Security; Provider Training on ERH; Services to Promote ERH; Relational Workforce; High Performing Medical Homes; Parent-Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health; and Early Childhood Systems.
Community Organizing: Values to Action
Dr. Anthony Biglan, Oregon Research Institute Values
1:14:48: I created an organization called Values to Action… it's a nonprofit dedicated to evolving more nurturing societies.
1:15:15: In the last two years, we have been working on how Values to Action can use all of the evidence we have about what people need to thrive to see if we can create greater wellbeing in communities and we focus down into communities for a number of reasons We've come to the conclusion that the optimal way to improve wellbeing is to work at the community level.
1:15:43: One of the reasons for that is a careful reading of the state of the political system in this country suggests that as a nation we're in for years of conservative control of the Federal government and government of many states Many of the policies and programs that all of us are trying to promote are going to have a tough road to hoe in terms of getting those things adopted to the national level or even in some states.
1:16:18: However, what we can do is support the development of more nurturing communities And in the context of the situation in the nation we can help to evolve islands of nurturing communities, such that over time we'll have more and more communities that are models for how we can ensure the wellbeing of every person in those communities and that can be a basis for…building well beyond the society that we've ever had in this country A society in which every person is respected and cared for and thriving.
1:16:53: I would add that this needs to include rural white communities because it is the case that many of the reasons that we so many white people with grievances that are supporting things that you and I would probably agree are not good to support is in part because the Democratic party abandoned poor white people, especially in rural communities.
1:17:30: So, the fundamental question I think is what are our values. Will we be driven by the free market economic theory that is everyone pursues their own wealth, that will benefit everyone. Or we will embrace a set of prosocial values in which we seek to ensure the wellbeing of every person?
1:17:47: I think our values are foundational for every problem our communities seek to address, reducing crime, reducing conflict, preventing substance use, ensuring families' wellbeing, ensuring that our children thrive, addressing climate change, and reducing discrimination are just some of the things that really require us first to embrace a set of values having to do with the wellbeing of every person.
1:18:13: We found it useful to pursue this in terms of what we called a PAX vision… it's a program that establishes nurturing environments in classrooms And the first thing it does, is it asks kids, if this was the most wonderful classroom you can imagine it being, what would you see more of, what would you hear more of, what would you do more of, and what would you feel more of, and the kids articulate what they want the classroom to be, they participate in defining the culture that they want Then they are asked what they would see, hear, do, and feel less of.
1:20:01: We thought that might be a useful thing to do in communities. We're working in some communities in Oregon where there has been a high level of conflict and people are angry with each other…we felt that we should start with what are the values of the people in the community?
1:21:30: We're promoting behaviors that people aspire to see more of in the community, we do that by posting praise, thanks, or recognition on social media and on our website for the community. Through a participatory process, we develop goals that would advance that vision, so we're asking people in the community to say what they want to do.
1:21:53: We are also developing Action Circles to work towards specific goals to advance that vision. We are developing a similar approach to help the Congolese refugee community in Oregon, essentially address the problems that they find are their greatest concern.
1:22:24: Dr. Biglan shares a slide that highlights how his organization is promoting these values in communities.
1:23:06: Much of what our work, both the work that has gotten us this far and where we're hoping to go, involves Action Circles. They are one strategy for addressing our many problems and we found them useful for a variety of problems. Our proposition is that if you're not satisfied with the state of the world, action circles give you an opportunity to do something about it They consist of a small group of people that come together to advance very specific improvements in society And by being time-limited, they give you a way to contribute to change that doesn't require you to quit your job, your education, your family, or your recreation.
1:30:57: Dr. Biglan discusses the Generic Features of Action Circles that Design Local Action Circles
Advocacy and Communities of Practice
Dan Press, Co-Founder, CTIPP
1:35:45: What we've learned from these workshops is there is a tremendous desire on the part of all of you to be part of a trauma-informed community. We've come up with three pieces of that for you to get involved in to be active in the trauma-informed community on a national level.
1:36:14: The first piece of that is a national coalition of local and state coalitions. If we're going to be effective, we need to bring the many and growing number of local and state coalitions together to become a real force. At first, they need to be a force at the local and state level. Many of you in your local coalitions understand how difficult it is to obtain funding for your coalitions. The answer is to persuade congress to enact funding programs that make money available to local trauma-informed coalitions.
1:37:15: Secondly, we're hearing a desire for networking among the coalitions. The second mission of the coalition of coalitions is to promote networking so you can share your ideas, so you can support each other, so you can build each other's enthusiasm.
1:37:38: The third initiative of the coalition of the coalitions is technical assistance. Is to provide technical assistance to either startup trauma-informed coalitions, or existing ones that are looking to strengthen their local or state initiatives. The national coalition of coalitions is an enterprise of CTIPP, the National Prevention Science Coalition, and PACEs Connection. The three organizations will be staffing the process and we really hope to get hundreds of local coalitions signing on so we can be a political force and a networking force.
1:39:07: The coalition of coalitions is bringing together local cross-sector coalitions, programs that are bringing together representatives from different sectors in your community to work together since no one sector can make the changes needed to make a community trauma-informed Its going to require the education, the health, the social services, the law enforcement, and all of the others. Cross sector coalitions achieve that.
1:39:37: The second initiative to create the community that you have been asking for is the creation of communities of practice. And those are sector-specific coalitions in which people involved in making their sector trauma-informed can get together and share ideas from the around the country. We have several of them already created.
1:40:02: Deborah Berkey created one for healthcare systems that are in the process of becoming trauma-informed and want to share ideas with each other, Becky Haas has created one for law enforcement officers, and Professor Dixon has created one for institutions of higher education. There are opportunities for many more communities of practice in virtually every sector.
1:41:50: The third piece is the national campaign that Jesse mentioned, this is an opportunity for individuals who want to become advocates with their congressional representatives, with their state representatives, sign up for the national campaign and CTIPP will be providing you with information on legislation can help promote the trauma-informed community and ask you to reach out to you congressperson, your state legislators to help advocate for that legislation.
1:42:43: There are three ways now for you to continue to be part of a trauma-informed community following up on these workshops. You're part of a local cross-sector coalition, join the coalition of coalitions, if you're not part of a coalition, create one, because we believe cross-sector coalitions at the local level are the most effective tools for turning communities into trauma-informed…if that doesn't work, join a community of practice, or create a community of practice, in the sector that you're in, and finally, join the national campaign and become an advocate to get trauma-informed legislation on the agenda congress and your state legislatures.
Networking and the Social Accelerator: Creating Resilience Communities
Ingrid Cochran, CEO at PACEs Connection
1:46:58: As a Tennessean, most of my health equity in this space with hospitals, and Nashville is really a hospital hub, has really been around rural communities and the disparities that they are encountering. And what I've found in my work is when we are explicit about race, we often will talk around communities of color without including all groups that are experiencing disparities and experiencing trauma and other ways that their resilience is being impacted, so I really appreciated Values to Action and their work.
1:47:55: PACEs Connection has been around since 2012 and we've really done a lot of work around how we support communities and what really is important in our work.
Ingrid discusses the five pillars of PACEs Science.
1:49:01: As we look to the future with PACEs Connection, I have just taken over as CEO this year in January, the priorities that we have set forward for the next three to five years are really about focusing on equity and being healing centered, especially for groups that have experienced historical trauma, intergenerational trauma, systemic issues, like racism and sexism, we want to focus on collective hope, and obviously we want to bring forward more information and understanding around PCEs, or positive childhood experiences, and how we can use our understanding of the science to create positive childhood experiences for people as prevention or as a buffer against the trauma that they are experiencing currently or historically.
1:49:56: We also want to address the collective traumas of the time, which are the COVID-19 pandemic and our current climate crisis. As we tackle these big problems, we want to be able to have a clear narrative around how these collective traumas are impacting us, but also bringing forward the understanding that when we are dealing with stress and trauma, even in a collective manner, it has a real impact on all our sectors.
1:57:15: As we move forward and think through what we want to tackle in the coming years, first, we have a call to action, that you become a member…. we want our members to be able to connect with each other, we have members from across the world, and we want them to have access to our resources, we have an awesome resource center We have a collection of resources that is probably one of the most extensive collections of trauma and resilience resources online.
1:51:58: Also, we want people to start a movement. As we have clearly stated, community is where healing happens, so we want you to join an existing community or a community of practice or we want you to really consider starting your own.
1:52:27: In addition to that, we provide consulting services to assist initiatives in what they are really struggling with the most. There are a lot of initiatives that are really struggling with diversifying and having DEI within their movement, there are a lot of initiatives that are struggling with member engagement, we're able to help in all of those aspects when it comes to how we organize and move forward and also how we sustain our movements over time.
1:53:15: We have also added some clear benefits from the standpoint of how we can assist you in your movement. First, if you are part of a community, your community has a free website, this service allows you to raise your visibility, it provides a place online for you to commune, we have over 400 other communities, so that connection is very important. It connects you with funders, it connects you with other relationships, you get to see who is doing what, where, and if it's working, or not working, you get to see other people's struggles and their successes. Those relationship building opportunities are probably the biggest benefit of being part of PACEs Connection.
1:54:09: That increased visibility that we have through our mapping the movement. This allows for anyone in the world to pull up a map and say I'm interested in what's going on in Oregon, I'm interested in what's going on in Texas, and they can zoom in and see your initiative wherever you are and connect with you.
1:54:30: One of the things that I've been most interested in especially in my personal journey of being a volunteer in an ACEs initiative before I became an employee of PACEs Connection, what I found was as an individual, when I went into these spaces to volunteer my time, I was often met with resistance, and that resistance can come from many places, and these are the things that kind of don't want to talk about when we talk about collective impact work or collaborations, that we do have to do the work of power-sharing, and engaging members, and creating spaces for members to come and also be heard and have equal power in your initiative. I encountered that not being the case when I attempted to be involved in an initiative, so this led me to believe that there is a lot of need for an understanding of how to work together.
1:55:27: This led me to believe that there is a lot of need for an understanding of how to work together because when we look at trauma initiatives, resilience initiatives, we're talking about communities, and we live in a polarizing time and so when we think about tackling all of the issues that communities need to tackle, racism, discrimination, health disparities, and of course adversity in childhood, there is a lot there that comes to the table that people need to grapple with and in order to do that, first, you need to have everyone at the table, and you need to be able to have difficult conversations.
1:56:11: So, our accelerator program, Creating Resilient Communities, is individually focused for people who are looking to address issues in their communities, but may not know exactly how to do it, or feel inadequate in the spaces where you have representatives from a medical center…health department…police…. how do I interact with these group and what do I bring to the table?
1:56:47: Ingrid reviews the Creating Resilience Community Accelerator Program
1:58:53: Ingrid reviews the Sustaining Resilience Communities - Cooperative of Communities
Community Project Funding (earmarks)
Jen Curt, Director of Government Affairs at CTIPP
2:02:42: Community Project Funding is an opportunity for you or if you're not eligible, an eligible partner to receive funding for an eligible project that you're working on directly through the annual government funding bill, or the appropriations bill. So instead of applying through the state or through an agency, you will get your program funded directly through the annual funding bill. But your representative or senator must make the request on your behalf to the appropriations committee.
2:05:29: Some of the evaluation criteria in the House, each member can only submit 15 requests, last year it was 10, this year 15, in the Senate, they're a little bit less selective because they don't have a limit. Your member has to certify that they have no financial stake in the project, neither does any member of their immediate family, they have demonstrated that there is robust community support, so this is not just a pet project for the member, there is evidence that this is needed, that it will impact a lot of people, and you're going to be required to provide that information.
2:06:14: There is a ban on for-profit recipients in 99.9% cases for-profits cannot receive community project funding, for some of accounts there are matching requirements…this funding is not for a ten-year project, it has to be obligated in that fiscal year. The amount that you can request, Congress is providing no more than 1% of their discretionary funding for earmarks.
2:07:21: Jen reviews the CPF accounts available in various subcommittees.
2:08:56: One of the accounts that I think you'll be really interested in is the SAMHSA account, really broad uses in this account generally for research to address substance use or mental health services, this is prevention, treatment, recovery support, paying peer support specialists, doing outreach case management, suicide prevention activities, providing education materials around substance use, HIV prevention, hiring more behavioral health providers at your organization. It can't be used for inpatient treatment or detox, direct payments to patients to incentivize entering treatment, food expenses, research projects, or constructions.
2:10:09: The HHS HRSA account, this is really, construction, acquiring equipment, and then training professionals. It can't be used for paying salary or buying buildings where you want to house your nonprofit in Jen reviews the requirements and limitations of the HRSA account in detail.
2:11:00: Jen reviews the requirements and limitations of the account for the HHS - Administration for Children and Families in detail.
2:11:42: Jen reviews the requirements and limitations of the account for the Department of Education – Elementary and Secondary Education – Innovation and Improvement Account.
2:12:17: Jen provides examples of FY22 projects that were funded under each of these accounts.
2:13:46: Suggestions from me before I bring in our expert, one, when you're thinking about making your application, making your ask, research your members priorities and tailor your language based on the kind of language they use to talk about your issues.
2:14:14: You'll want to request a meeting with staff, if you can get a meeting, that's great, you'll want to emphasize building trust with them, you'll emphasize how much community support your project has and the benefits to their members and the community.
2:14:29: If you don't have a project eligible that you're working on you can reach out to a nonprofit partner or a local government entity and encourage them to apply.
2:15:55 to 2:31:03: Jen holds a Q&A with Denise Fleming, who worked on the Hill for 10 years, most recently serving as Representative Cindy Axne's Legislative Director.
Jen has a conversation with Denise about the process for applying for Community Project Funding.
Self-Healing Communities and ACE Interface
Laura Porter, Co-Founder of ACE Interface
2:38:37: I want to open by talking about this word coalesce. Coalesce means to grow together and think of it as we're uniting people through a common goal, but we're doing it through learning and growth. So, a coalition is put together for a specific reason, we might want to put one together for creating a healing centered community, but that's pretty extract. Coalitions usually come together because there is some significant need in the community or in the interest group and then they go on a journey together to learn together and so we have to think of coalitions like we think of communities. They're living systems.
2:39:29: So, when we think about growing together, what are we growing. We're growing the capacity to solve problems, which means we have to build into our coalition development, some civic skill building, some building of and modeling healthy relationships and trauma-informed ways of interacting with human beings inside of the group, or the community, and then the ability to identify and activate really fit situations and honestly evaluate success.
2:40:03: These are pretty rare, this set of skills you won't find in everyone who would like to start a coalition. So, in part what you're going to do, is think about your own skills and think about who you need to be on a core team. I think of it as the group that you huddle with, the group that you might have a breakfast meeting with once a week and figure out what's our strategy and what we are heading for.
2:40:32: You're going to build the processes that are trustworthy, and that means when you say that you're going to do something, you do it and that you put regular and systematic times in place for your action. People can relate to you, even people who don't easily trust others, begin to understand that they can trust your process.
2:40:59: You want to be able to co-create innovation and so you want to recruit and talk with people who are excited about innovation, want change, and then lastly, we're trying to grow the ability to lead a learning system. That we are leading organizations to be able to grow, and change, and learn, and adjust their policies and practices.
2:41:30: We're not just a group of people that comes into a meeting to set an outcome as a goal and then we achieve it, we're actually going to build the opportunity for growth and learning together and most communities don't have much opportunity for that. So, if you use people's time wisely in developing these skills and abilities, they'll find your coalition work to be valuable in their professional and personal lives.
2:41:58: I really rely heavily on systems thinking tools and I wanted to introduce one simple one and many of you may know about it, it's the systems thinking iceberg and the idea here is like an iceberg, we see a small part of reality, and those are the events that we can see in every day life, but what's below the water line is pretty powerful, we're talking about making change.
2:42:22: So, there are patterns…there are structures, mental models, values, and principles. So, the idea here is that our values and principles are driving our mental models, our mental models are a belief about the truth. And those beliefs about the truth are driving the structures that we create, including things like when Tony was talking about learning circles and innovation kinds of work.
2:42:55: The structures that we create include not only the organizational structure, but also who talks to who in a community, in a coalition, etc. The structures that we create drive the patterns and the events that we can see, and we get more lasting change if we focus our coalition building and our skill-building below the water line, if we're challenging people around these issues of our values and principles, and if we're challenging the ways our thinking may be keeping the community stuck.
2:43:34: First I want to talk about fuel for change…the first fuel I often I see people use for change is they're trying to address a shared threat and they will use anger as a fuel, often, and especially in communities where they have been long-standing injustices, anger is a very easy fuel to reach tool, but it is a short-term fuel It doesn't tend to make very lasting change.
2:44:18: Below the water line, having shared goals or targets shared objectives, below that and driving those shared objectives are desire for social and practice improvement, and these require different kinds of fuel for change. When we're working with people, we're trying to get them to have some shared goals or shared practice improvement, we're often dealing with ambition as a primary fuel for change.
2:45:00: Another fuel for change is story. When we want to engage people's sense of vision, their creativity, their hope, we can often use story as fuel for starting a coalition, for engaging a coalition, and for keeping it rolling.
2:45:16: And then lastly, and probably the most powerful type of fuel for change is really about shared identity, who do we want to be, what is our legacy, and what do we want to leave the world with But that fuel is difficult to use in the beginning, so we tend to use these top three at the beginning.
2:46:36: So, (anger) can be a very effective fuel, you can get rapid change, but you can't expect to get really lasting change, so use that fuel only when you want to create a coalition for a short-term goal and when you're prepared to navigate all of the complications that come from that fuel But also, at the same time, you should be thinking about how you are going to layer in these other kinds of fuels so that you don't get stuck at the end of getting your short-term goals met but still having all of this anxiety and free-floating anger in your community.
2:47:50: Use your breakfast club, use your huddle group to think about what the fuel is we're using for change and how do we use fuel that has a more lasting impact like ambition, story, or identity.
2:48:09: So, I want to tell you about the power of story, later on in my organizing, maybe a decade later, after I had been working with many community initiatives and really noticing some of the really deep challenges our community had and the basic infrastructure we didn't have for solving or addressing those challenges One of the infrastructures we didn't have was any form of public transportation And we had had two failed initiatives to raise the tax dollars for having public transportation, which in Washington state is initially funded through sales tax So here we had this challenge, how did we change the very infrastructure, which allows people to participate in community life So, transportation is a part of having resilient healing centered community because how can you fully engage people in solving the problems of their own lives and experiencing efficacy and control and choice and collaboration with others when they can't actually participate in community life because they can't actually get to any of the places they need to get to for participation.
2:49:26: What we did was, we looked up the laws, and said OK we need to have a transit plan, we had no idea what a transit plan was…we had the challenge of how do we get a yes vote after two no votes where people digging in their heels, no we're not going to pay for this, it's a poor community, we can't afford it, so I reached for the power of story, story is a very powerful tool for aligning people's interests So, the story that we told and we told it everywhere were went, was a story about a couple who were actually friends of mine, the woman in this couple…the wife had fallen and broken both of your wrists, when you break both of your wrists you can't do anything for yourself…you really have to have help for everything throughout your day. And this was a couple who had been managing very independent lives, they were very competent, active early retirees with lots of interests that both had, and they weren't used to having to spend all of their time together.
2:51:21: So, we told the story, any of us at any time could fall…and break both of our wrists and what would that mean in our lives. It would mean that other people would have to set aside everything care about in order to help us, it would mean that we couldn't shop for groceries, we couldn't get to the doctor, we couldn't bathe ourselves, we couldn't dress ourselves, and what would really help everyone in that situation is if we could still get a ride, we could still get to the places we needed to get, we still may need a friend that would help us with the basic inside of the house things, but we could still have a life to get from home out into the community, out to medical appointments, out to the grocery store, etc Where other people then could help us, and we wouldn't have to rely on one person.
2:52:20: It turns out, that story was a story that almost universally people could relate to. They could imagine a situation in which they would need a bus system and we overwhelmingly won the tax base to startup the base system and interestingly enough…we were the first bus system in our state that was funded after the ADA requirements, we not only were able to start up a bus system, but we were able to follow up on our promise that no matter who you were you could get a ride.
2:53:11: So, story, a powerful fuel, but you have to find the story that allows people to see themselves in it and that can be a powerful way to build a coalition.
2:53:35: When you're leading coalition development, you have this tricky balance that you have to strike You have to have ambition, you have to know what it is you're after, you have to be convincing about it, but you also have to have a lot of humility because people will rely on you to structure the communication, to design the meeting, to structure data, and other kinds of information…but they don't want a single person to be in charge You are a servant leader when you are organizing a coalition.
2:54:49: It's important because you're asking this group to also have a balance between doing really thoughtful, thorough work, and getting a big goal accomplished…but you're balancing that thoughtful thorough work with you need innovation, you need spark, you need just-in-time action and so this notion of balancing and noticing is really important in coalition development.
2:55:20: One thing I try to do always is a lot of interviewing. One thing that I'm listening for…about what people really want in their communities and their lives.
2:55:43: What you're mining for people's ideas and opinions, what are the actions that if we took them, we believe would make the change occur and out of that, you're trying to look for, do we need a collaborative approach, do we need a coalition, or could we accomplish this in some other form because coalitions take a lot of time.
2:56:30: I think there's nothing more frustrating as a very busy community leader to be called to a series of meetings where I could have just read an email.
2:56:50: Think about not only who the stakeholders are, but why you need them.
2:57:06: Your job is to be continually improving that map of who the stakeholders are and how you might be able to use them to improve the conditions in the community. You're constantly consulting with partners You're continuing your interview process…in every case where I've seen effective coalitions grow and be sustained over time, their focus will evolve, it will mature, it will go through essentially developmental phases, and great coalition facilitators stay up on what those are, and they can articulate them and provide direction to the people who are joining that movement over time.
3:05:20: When you're recruiting people into a coalition, just remember that recruitment is personal and in that same way that we use the systems thinking iceberg, think about you want to recruit for the lasting change, you want to recruit for that person to stay engaged with creating a healing centered community for the long-term, and we do that by recruiting below the water line We're going to create based on peoples shared identifies, and their dreams.
3:06:20: You're recruiting elders, you're recruiting based on a sense of legacy, and based on this is the person I want to be remembered as.
3:07:21: Very commonly people are recruiting based on skills and abilities, and while that's an important thing to do, it's less important than recruiting based on the legacy I want to leave, or the creativity I want to contribute, or the social networks I am able to build Those things create more lasting change.
3:07:42: But the most common way to recruit in a coalition is based on people's positions, and it's probably in my opinion the least powerful way to create a coalition.
3:08:57: You also want to build a coalition where you're inviting people to opt-in. It's important that people realize they can come in and contribute something that is really big and then they can back out and then come back in when they contribute something that's big next.
3:09:29: Instead, coalitions can expand and shrink around the activities or situations your really need. But about once a year, or two years at the least, you should have a large meeting of everyone so you can invite them to opt back in, where you're carefully designing opportunities for people to engage, and you're carefully designing what the next steps might be so people can see where that opportunity is, and they can offer to help.
3:10:20: In communities that are deeply affected by trauma and adversity, trust is one of the hardest things to build. All over the coalition building literature it says that you always build trust first, but if you've worked in a community that has very high ACE prevalence, very high historical trauma prevalence, you'll find a large percentage of people who do not trust, and they have very good reasons not to So, you have to redouble your efforts to do things in a rhythmic and systematic way to offer opportunity in a similar way every time and equally to all different kinds of players You have to offer translation, letting people know where others are coming from so there are not big surprises, so when we hear differences of opinions, we knew that they were going to come.
3:11:25: The civic skill of being able to listen to very different conflicting views and find a way to frame all of those in a way where we can see our common cause, our common shared identity, that is a rare civic skill, but you need it in order to build a coalition.
3:11:42: If that's not something you do easily, I would suggest you recruit core team members that are good at listening to divergent views and building frameworks where everyone can see themselves in those frameworks. That will allow you to pursue a theory of change, pursue those sequence of actions in a way where people can understand why you're taking those actions even if they may disagree with one action, they agree with the overall course of action and they stay in the coalition.
3:12:16: So, when we're building coalitions, we essentially are strengthening the bridges between social networks.
3:13:05: Laura shares a chart focused on Building Social Bridges.