Creating a Trauma Resilient and Healing Community in Louisville, KY - Metro Louisville is a thriving metropolitan city, which is experiencing increasing incidents of community violence and civil unrest that threaten to destroy its most vulnerable communities. Further escalated after the killing of Breonna Taylor and coupled with the devastation caused by COVID-19, and due to racial trauma and existing structural and systemic disparities, Black and Brown communities have experienced significantly higher rates of infection, hospitalization, health and mental health diagnoses, and preventable deaths (e.g., suicide). This combined experience of collective trauma has caused a ripple effect throughout our communities of color. The protests around the killing of Breonna, the culture of systemic racism, the increased racial profiling, and separation of immigrant families has intensified and fostered this explosion of violence, that radiates throughout our most vulnerable communities, causing the ripple to spread leaving victims in its path to feel overwhelmed and powerless. This has contributed to internalized anger, which has manifest in higher rates of suicide and interpersonal violence among communities of color. The Louisville Trauma Resilient Healing Project (TRC -HP) is a city-wide program that seeks to promote resilience and healing for Louisville’s high-risk youth and families in the communities most affected by trauma, violence, and civil unrest. To address this growing crisis, the TRC-HP will utilize a comprehensive, participatory, community-based approach consisting of 1) trauma-resilient community capacity building, 2) trauma-informed, culturally-specific behavioral health services for youth and their families, 3) trauma-informed care interventions and approaches for first responders and clinicians, and 4) consumer feedback and evaluation to help youth and their families overcome the effects of trauma. Specifically, this project will 1) increase traumainformed knowledge and skills of personnel who respond to children and families experiencing community violence, trauma, and civil unrest, 2) increase access and capacity regarding trauma-informed, culturally-specific behavioral services for at-risk and their families exposed to community violence, trauma and civil unrest, and 3) evaluate the impact of the project on consumers of this proposed project. TRC-HP will develop a 20-member community advisory board, which will strengthen community empowerment, participation, and community buy-in. In addition, TRC-HP will work with community-based clinicians deeply rooted in the targeted neighborhoods to enhance access and delivery of trauma-informed, culturally-specific behavioral health services to 918 youth and their family members. Additionally, TRC-HP will provide trauma-informed training, coaching, and resources to 258 first responders and clinicians in order to develop a common language, mitigate the impact of secondary trauma, and strengthen youth violence prevention and intervention efforts across the system of care in Louisville. Project-related activities, services, and outreach efforts will target communities in Metro Louisville, where high-risk youth and families most affected by trauma, violence, and civil unrest reside.
