Local Agencies Awarded Grants to Address Community Healing
Local Agencies Awarded Grants to Address Community Healing
Reaching our Pursuing Our Potential Together aspirations requires meaningfully influencing and improving child health outcomes by expanding our role in our community. We want to foster participation, investment and make significant contributions in funding and expertise. The first step in that process is listening.
“We have been hearing from family partners and community members that there needs to be more focus on community healing,” said Carly Riley, associate professor of Pediatrics. “We wanted to learn from people how they understand community trauma and how healing can be supported.”
The Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST) offered funding to support innovation. They took the opportunity to support community-led efforts in healing and trauma and aimed to provide funding for small projects focused on increasing well-being through the healing of community trauma. There was a call for proposals with a review process conducted by community members.
“We did not design any projects and were not a part of the review process,” said Riley. “It was important that decision-making was done by the community. We just supported with our time, effort, and funding.”
Through the efforts of our Community Relations, Community Health, and CCTST teams, five projects were awarded CHAnGE (Community Healing Action Grants for Everyone) grants. They implemented projects that promoted trauma healing and inspired long-term and sustainable programming with long-term benefits for community members.
Black Women Cultivating Change
Black Women Cultivating Change hosts “manifestation mixers,” which tie spirituality and healing into engaging events that often include artistic elements such as music or art. After being awarded the CHAnGE grant, Black Women Cultivating Change hosted several events at the beginning of the year to jumpstart their project, including a vision board party, a teen mental health virtual event, a black men’s mental health mixer, and an event for Sexual Assault Awareness Month that provided safe spaces for black people and promoted healing conversations centered on trauma, mental health, and positive affirmation. Black Women Cultivating Change wants to hold more events to address trauma needs and perspectives within the community.
HART
Mecum House is a youth crisis shelter in Cincinnati for kids under the age of 18. They collaborated with Cincinnati Public Schools: Project Connect, Soul Palette, and Lighthouse Youth and Family Services for HART, which brought healing art programming to Mecum House.
The project was created to encourage students to use art as a therapeutic outlet and to create a mural in the entryway of Mecum House. Each session lasted for an hour, and youth learned about art basics and artistic careers in an environment that provided necessary mentally and physically safe spaces to express their emotions around their life circumstances. The project has provided students with an inviting and trauma-sensitive space that encourages teamwork, acceptance, and inclusion, while also promoting an increased interest in the arts.
Elementz allows children to explore several genres of music, from DJ-ing to orchestra.
The Heights Movement
A policing gun range near the Lincoln Heights and Woodlawn neighborhoods has negatively impacted residents for 75 years. The constant sound of gunfire and the unwanted presence of the gun range has caused trauma in the neighborhoods, but calls to relocate the gun range or place significant restrictions on operation times have largely gone unheard. The CHAnGE grant is the first funding The Heights Movement has received to address this issue. They used the funds to continue providing education and mental health first-aid training to the neighborhoods of Lincoln Heights and Woodlawn that experience intergenerational trauma of gunfire caused by the location of the gun range. The Heights Movement has also held trauma-informed events to address the issues and provide community members a safe space to express their feelings.
The increased events and activities have led to a potential path towards sustained change. Community leaders and advocates have met more frequently, and The Heights Movement has forced open conversations about the gun range and its negative community impacts.
Elementz
Elementz is a hip-hop cultural art center that encourages positive change in the community through civic engagement centered around five core programs: Deejaying, music and audio production, hip-hop dance, visual arts, and poetry. “These art forms are important because they have given people of color a voice and activated communities around the world,” said Camille Jones, senior manager of advancement for Elementz.
Elementz used the CHAnGE grant award to launch a hip-hop youth orchestra (referred to as HH-YO!) for 10 Withrow high school students to expose them to hybrid musical forms and inspire youth to create, innovate, and express themselves. Students had the opportunity to arrange, compose, and perform music collaboratively with the goal of opening the door for more interesting and compelling music expression.
Jones said, “It was inspirational to be able to see the students play current music they listen to on classical instruments.” Elementz wants to continue the program, attract more students, and plans to give the orchestra opportunities to perform at live events.
The Hirsch Recreation Complex uses methods such as horticulture therapy and community-inspired artwork, to provide safe spaces for children that have experienced trauma.
Cincinnati Recreation Commission: Hirsch Recreation Center
The staff at the Hirsch Recreation Center understood the community required trauma-sensitive spaces and saw an increase in the need for social emotional learning and coping strategies for youth. They used the CHAnGE grant award to incorporate more trauma-informed safe spaces and practices for youth. They've also provided strategies to aid in the counteraction of trauma by offering a place to learn safe and healthy behaviors and implement stress management and creative programming. This includes the Kids Write program, a partnership with the University of Cincinnati English Department, which introduced creative writing as a coping strategy and allowed students to participate in a writing salon where they answered questions about their stories. The program was so successful that it will be expanded to at least three other Cincinnati Recreation Commission sites.
Safe spaces were dedicated throughout the program to allow participants the opportunity to take breaks away from their classroom when they become overwhelmed by the camp environment. These dedicated spaces included sensory items and calming activities and were accessible to all program participants.
The Hirsch Recreation Center programming aligned with a shift in CRC to start including more trauma-informed safe spaces and practices. Programming was so impactful for participants that more CRC centers will integrate trauma informed training and practices.
“The common theme among these projects was providing a safe space for trauma healing,” said Connie Stewart, Community Engagement consultant. “Now that we’ve seen how these projects can help communities, we can use it as a launching pad for the next steps in our journey towards community empowerment, trauma healing, and organizational change.”