Cultivating Action, Resiliency and Empowerment (CARE): Expanding the Resilient Jacksonville System of Care - Jacksonville has a has a long history of segregation, oppression, racism, and police brutality—leading to the demonstrations involving more than 3,000 people in May 2021 and Quench the Violence protest marches in May 2022. Cultivating Action, Resilience and Empowerment (CARE): Expanding the Resilient Jacksonville System of Care will utilize a rights-based framework to create an ecosystem of care to solidify, sustain and build upon community-based participatory efforts; meet the needs of high-risk youth and their families; and promote well-being, resiliency, and community healing. CARE will serve more than 15,000 unduplicated individuals in Jacksonville’s Health Zone 4, an area that has been plagued with a string of violence stemming from multiple murders of young men, in addition to having the highest rate of drug overdoses, infant mortality and domestic violence homicides of the six Duval County Health Zones. By building on the City of Jacksonville’s existing SAMHSA System of Care (SOC), we will integrate, restructure and expand the foundational components of the SOC (e.g. cultural and linguistic competency, family-driven, youth-guided, and evidence based) and ReCast (e.g., trauma-responsive training, evidence-based interventions, violence prevention strategies and community engagement strategies) that have been successfully implemented through our prior and current SAMHSA grants to establish a trauma informed Jacksonville that will focus on training first responders, community stakeholders, providers, educators, law-enforcement, clergy and parents in trauma-informed care and practices and serving more than 15,000 community stakeholders, providers, high-risk children, youth, their families and community residents residing in Jacksonville’s west side corridor, an area with violence prone communities that experience high-rates of stress and trauma. CARE will be under the leadership and guidance of the SOC Community Advisory Board, a diverse leadership consortium of community stakeholders, providers, and families and youth in the community that will ensure transparency in systemic and programmatic intervention implementation. Project goals include: (1) Building a foundation to promote well-being, resiliency, and community healing and change through community-based, participatory approaches that promote community and youth engagement, leadership development, improved governance, and capacity building; (2) Creating more equitable access to trauma-informed community behavioral health resources; (3) Strengthening the integration of behavioral health services and other community systems to address the social determinants of health, recognizing that factors, such as law enforcement practices, transportation, employment, and housing policies, can contribute to health outcomes; and (4) Ensuring that program services are culturally responsive and developmentally appropriate.
