Wednesday was quite an inspiring day, I travelled up to Pasco where Broetje Orchards have helped to create two communities which were established in support of their workforce but encompass a trauma informed approach which of course was great for me to see. The Broetje family place a large emphasis on their faith as the reason for their commitment to their staff, this isn't just extended to ensuring that people turn up and pick fruit, it is a genuine desire to see people lead successful lives, resolve issues, and become more happy and more fulfilled. They combine the work of their business with their charitable foundation and the team at Tierra Vida (the first and newest housing project I saw) are employed to ensure community cohesion and support for people, trying to ensure that new arrivals are welcomed and engaged with neighbours.
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| The Staff at Tierra Vida and my friend Andrew Rodriguez from C2C |
They have combined the community work with a tremendous body of evidence, like Dario they have worked to make 'story telling' a key part of the research as the community the serve feel more able to share stories that complete surveys. The richness of the data is combined with a commitment to using it to further the success of the community.
Vista Hermosa is the original community they established and has a specialist (trauma informed) school, health centre, community centre, and a staff team to work with people to support them and their families. I was fortunate to share much of this time with Rick Griffin who is the Executive Director of the Jubilee Leadership Academy, this is a project established to provide an alternative to juvenile detention for young people, it is based on trauma informed principles and has impressive results. What I learned from Jubilee was that it is essential that everyone is able to buy into the idea, I met a staff member who at first had not been convinced that the change from a more traditional approach would work - it's fair to say he is a convert! The work encompasses families as well as the young men within the academy, it offers internship opportunities to people who may have graduated but have an uncertain future and is a place that offers learning and personal development whilst treating the residents with respect and love.
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| Rick Griffin at Jubilee |
In the evening I attended the City Council where I spoke briefly and supported Teri as they presented the proclamation declaring October to be Resilience Month in Walla Walla! From there we attended the screening of Suicide - The Ripple Effect a superb documentary film that was both moving and full of stories of peer support. Check it out.
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| Proclamation time! |
Thursday was a quite remarkable day as I visited Sunnyside High School, this is a place where some years ago graduation rates were around 48%. Today they are in the high 90's, they adopted trauma informed approaches to the extent that there is now no specialist school provision as they are able to work with all of the young people locally. I saw the power of a staff team who buy into the approach, leadership who model it, and the success of showing love and respect to young people. I met with a group of young leaders who impressed me as they were fully conversant in what the school was doing, proud of the change that had been seen, and also aware that the emotional regulation that they were learning was a tool for life not just something to keep them in line during school.
Dave Martinez the Assistant Principle gave me the tour and discussed with me the work they had done, he was the epitome of someone in a leadership role within a trauma informed environment - he knew people individually, supported his staff and encouraged self care, had passion for the outcomes of the young people, and celebrated success with pride. as with Hillsboro, as with Lincoln High it is the connection to the young people over and above any one system or interpretation of an approach that is vital to see success.
On Friday I had the chance to meet with two of the local charitable foundations, the Sherwood Trust and the Blue Mountain Community Foundation. It was fascinating to hear that they had a real commitment to seeing the roll out of resilience and trauma informed approaches across the city, supporting good causes is always cool but commitment to a movement is a far greater challenge and goes beyond mere philanthropy. Danielle from Sherwood and Kari from Blue Mountain both had a clear knowledge of what exactly the community needed and was receiving from Teri and her work, they are invested literally and figuratively in the success.
I also had an amazing time with the Head Start Policy Council, this is a remarkable group of women who have children within the school. They are empowered to influence the direction of the school and to hold the work to account. As well as doing this it is in essence a quietly powerful peer support group giving voice to people who would not usually feel they should be heard, I found inspiration from the story of Lupe who had never had interest in being part of anything like this but has gone on to not only be a major part of this group but also to represent Walla Wall at a state level and had travelled to Washington DC to help lobby members of Congress to support trauma informed approaches - and did so successfully. She not only inspired others with her journey but also supported and encouraged her peers to try to take new opportunities - more Lupe's in our communities please!
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| The fabulous Policy Council |
I ended the week with a really amazing visit to the theatre to see an interpretation of the play Every Brilliant Thing, again if you have a version of it near you make time to check it out.
The message of this week, it is a cliche but it takes a village - for communities to find ways to heal they need to have as many areas as possible attended to and as many connections as possible to each other. It is no good to simply change schools without working with, engaging, and empowering parents and students. It is no good to ask for the support of local bodies without challenging them to give a genuine and fulsome commitment to the work (proclamations, charities investing deeply in the cause). It is no use housing people unless you value the community environment you are curating. There is little point inspiring leaders unless you guide them to the opportunities to lead. For a city or a town to be transformed you need to reach deeply and bravely into communities and support them to find their voice, to be informed and ultimately to have genuine empowerment. Only with these things in place can people feel able to provide the safety to others so that they might be able to get support, love, and connection. Ultimately you need to trust that within each person and within each community is the knowledge of what they need to be healed and be successful - it is not the easy choice.
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