National Trauma CampaignThe National Trauma Campaign is honored to have been featured acknowledged as an impactful endeavor in the “Tools and Inspiration” section of Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities’ (MARC) website!
Please head to MARC’s site and read “Power of Networks Tapped for National Trauma Campaign!”
We are very excited to let you know that we were given permission to screen the film Resilience with our network! We invite you to join us and watch the film during the first weekend in June.
On June 6th and 7th, we will make a temporary code public to watch the film. In addition to the film itself, Campaign Core Team members, Erin and Whitney, will pad the film with recorded grounding exercises that we encourage you to use before, after, and during the film as you feel you need. If you are interested in joining us for the screening or the discussion after, please sign up on our Eventbrite page!
We invite you to not just watch the film yourself, but also invite congressional staff and other people in your networks. Please feel free to share this message or just the Eventbrite link with others. Resilience is a great call to action for people to join the Campaign and support our efforts, and we want to ensure this opportunity does not go to waste. We encourage you to watch the film through the lens of how we can utilize the information in the film to support our efforts and Calls to Action for Congress.
The week following the film, we will set up at least one time to discuss the film together and how we can use what we learned to continue advocating for trauma-informed and resilience-focused policies and programs. For those whose own congressional offices and/or network(s) join the call, you may want to consider having your own debriefing call as well to discuss how this can influence organizing efforts in your own communities. The National Campaign Core Team can support you with talking points and grounding exercises if this is of interest to you. Feel free to reach out to info@traumacampaign.org.
This spring, the Campaign worked with U.S. Representative David Trone, a member of the House Trauma-Informed Care Caucus, to submit a bipartisan Dear Colleague letter. This letter, signed by 22 U.S. Representatives in total, advocated for $100 million to be dedicated to trauma-informed programming, including funding to make schools trauma-informed in response to emerging needs of children and young people during (and, presumably, following) this pandemic, as well as funding to support the mental health and wellness of first responders, health care workers, and their families.
This letter seems to have been influential and impactful as the letter’s recommendation that House leadership be attentive to concepts related to trauma and resilience ultimately was included in the House-passed HEROES Act. The National Trauma Campaign network played a major role in circulating this Dear Colleague letter to Congresspeople and their staff around the country. Great work–thank you for your dedication and engagement!
We still need your help bringing trauma awareness to the federal government. We are hopeful that some or all of these ideas will be included by the Senate in its own COVID-19 response bill. Please continue to advocate to your 2 U.S. Senators and reach out to the Campaign Core Team with any questions, thoughts, or requests for support!
When the National Trauma Campaign launched in February, there was an enormous need for trauma-informed and resilience-focused policies and practices to be implemented around the country. The coronavirus pandemic is contributing to the already dire need for this change we set out to make.
The National Trauma Campaign Core Team has developed toolkits and resources to continue to grow our efforts during this time. We invite you to check out our COVID-19 Action Toolkit and COVID-19 Resources to support COVID-specific advocacy and tools to use during this time.
Though Congressional support for the CARES Act outpaced Campaign efforts in March 2020, the network effectively mobilized around leveraging some of the designated CARES Act funds to be used in states to respond to the widespread adversity and stress experienced from the pandemic. We have been advocating for CARES Act dollars to be spent in states to develop/bolster trauma-informed programs, with the greatest opportunity currently being in the education system due to the more than $3 billion allocated to states through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund.
We–the members of the Campaign Core Team–cannot capture in words how grateful we are for the incredible advocacy efforts Campaign network members are making. All of this matters toward the progress we’re seeing as trauma and resilience become concepts more Congresspeople are considering. Wonderful work!