Resilient PA Grassroots Network launches to help communities grow and flourish

HARRISBURG, Pa. — United Way of Pennsylvania announced recently that it is launching a statewide network to connect local organizations who want to help support individuals through a trauma-informed approach which recognizes various forms of trauma and adverse events. This coalition, called “Resilient PA – Growing and Flourishing Together”, strives to foster resilient Pennsylvania youth, families, and communities by promoting trauma-informed care and systems across sectors, raising awareness of the impact of trauma, and advocating for resiliency-building policies and funding.

“Trauma-informed practice focuses on the totality of an individual’s life experience, recognizing that many Americans have experienced trauma, sometimes beginning in childhood. Trauma impacts the brain’s response to stress, which also impacts behavior. Traumainformed care digs deeper to determine what is in an individual’s set of experiences in order to understand their behavior, and then a treatment plan can be developed to support individual resiliency,” said Kristen Rotz, President of United Way of Pennsylvania.

Trauma generates both a neurological and emotional response, and trauma may also have physical symptoms. Trauma can result from a single stressful event. Prolonged exposure to highly stressful events also causes trauma – like witnessing community violence or drug abuse in the home, social isolation during the pandemic, or the uncertainty of poverty. Secondary trauma can also be experienced by people who have close contact with someone who has experienced a traumatic event.

“Many Pennsylvanians have experienced trauma or prolonged, severe stress as a result of the pandemic. This may stem from financial hardship, social isolation, or being a member of a group that has poorer health outcomes if COVID-19 is contracted. Healing requires sufficient access to resources to support our understanding of our own experience. Recovering from the trauma of COVID-19 is a journey we are all on together,” Rotz said.

In May of 2020, the Governor’s Office of Advocacy and Reform announced a volunteer leadership team who would develop a plan to make PA a traumainformed state, called HEAL PA. Resilient PA is a separate but complementary initiative which will help scale trauma-informed care across the state while leveraging training and educational resources developed by HEAL PA and connecting communities to share and replicate promising practice.

“Becoming a trauma-informed state will require people from different communities, disciplines, and sectors to come together around the science of trauma and how it affects all of us. HEAL PA was created as a public/private coalition that could connect to many existing and new initiatives and movements across Pennsylvania with Resilient PA as the case in point. By bringing our efforts together as strategic partners we increase each other’s reach and impact exponentially for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians,” said Dan Jurman, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Advocacy and Reform.

“As Pennsylvanians continue to work together in order to overcome the pandemic, now is a time for acknowledging the many traumas of varying sorts that have caused unspeakable pain to many in our state. We, at the same time, acknowledge the moral obligation we all have to build resilience and support healing of every kind for people who have suffered too long from these experiences. Resilient PA is a call to action for us all, recognizing that each and everyone of us has an important role to play in the future of a Pennsylvania that is more resilient, more healing and more just,” said Reverend Paul Abernathy, CEO of Neighborhood Resilience Project.

Local United Ways have spearheaded regional efforts to implement trauma-informed care in their communities. United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey lead local coalitions and were key partners in starting Resilient PA. United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey is funding Resilient PA through a grant to bring together a coalition of public and private partners to further trauma-informed care. Collaborating around best practices is a key part of the coalition.

“I am pleased to join the United Way of Pennsylvania in announcing this important initiative to bring awareness to the impact trauma has on an individual’s life,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pat Browne said. “Resilient PA focuses on identifying avenues of support for those who have experienced a traumatic event or are currently facing continued trauma in their daily lives. Placing a goal of increasing an individual’s resiliency in dealing with trauma is critical to helping improve individuals’, families’ and communities’ health and outcomes in life.”

Anyone who would like to get involved with Resilient PA is invited to sign up at https://www. uwp.org/resilient-pa/