Collective for Healthy Communities
The Collective for Healthy Communities (CHC) is an initiative that provides community-level interventions that promote well-being and resilience using a social-ecological approach (focusing on the individual, interpersonal, community and societal levels). In addition, CHC advocates for policy changes that reduce the impact of traumatic exposures in children-at school, in the community, and in the home. CHC is funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
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In its first year, our In That Number campaign had 10 million billboard impressions and bus ads were seen over 30,000 times a day for 6 months.
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In its first year, In That Number gained 1400 new followers, with a Twitter reach of 242,967 and a Facebook reach of 81,077.
In That Number (ITN) is a public will campaign designed to change negative ideas about young people while advocating for youth-focused trauma-informed care services. The campaign also aims to break the school-to-prison pipeline and reduce school suspensions by promoting restorative and transformative justice. Beginning in 2012, CHC designed and has been conducting an Emotional Wellness Survey (EWS) to measure symptoms of poor mental health including depression, PTSD, and suicidality. The high levels of mental health symptoms and exposure to violence pushed IWES to create a strategy to change these statistics. ITN launched in 2016 aiming to change peoples' view of youth that "act out" from "bad," to possibly "sad" and in need of support services (#SadNotBad). The campaign includes a mix of traditional (billboards, bus ads, television PSA, newspaper articles) and new/social media tactics and features short narratives and powerful images from diverse youth that describe the trauma they experienced and the responses they received from the adults and systems around them. To provide the story behind the numbers, our EWS data is paired with each story to relate them back to the issues youth of New Orleans face.
In 2017, CHC embarked upon a new program that added a new layer to the In That Number campaign, IWES received a grant from the Open Society Foundations to address the rise in harassment, violence, and social marginalization of vulnerable racial and LGBTQ populations in New Orleans. Communities Against Hate (CAH) offered services to address trauma in youth stemming from negative language, hate crimes, and racism that they experience. The intervention included crisis assessments, intervention services, and professional trainings for people working with youth. CAH screened over 140 youth, 63 of which required a follow-up assessment to determine whether or not additional mental health services were needed or desired. Of those 63, 10 were referred to mental health professionals fro additional supports and services. CAH also created a new focus of In That Number, #WeThe504, which highlights stores of adults who have created inclusive, accepting, and compassion spaces through their actions in or around schools. #WeThe504 included stories from teachers, mental health professionals, students, and parents who embodied an inclusive New Orleans through action and advocacy. The stories were highlighted on all IWES social media platforms and on billboards throughout the New Orleans area.
Collected from 1200 youth between 2012-2015, some of the early statistics that the campaign shared are that: 20% of youth surveyed experienced PTSD in their lifetime; 30% of youth surveyed worried about not being loved; 40% of youth surveyed witnessed a shooting, stabbing or beating; and 54% of youth surveyed experienced the murder of someone close to them.
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Hotel Hope
Hotel Hope (HH) is a non-profit, interfaith organization that provides short-term residence for women and their children, while offering case management and other transitional supportive services. Using a trauma-informed approach, IWES social workers and public health professionals gathered input from HH staff to design a curriculum for the women on site. The weekly Women’s Empowerment Hour offers psycho-education and space for connection, processing and support. Topics include: coping with trauma and stress, nurturing parent-child relationships, navigating health care systems, healthy relationships & boundaries, as well as, substance use and women’s reproductive health. Drawing from our experience working with New Orleans’ youth and the complex issues they endure, a weekly Chat & Chill held with the on-site youth, aims to support the resilience and social emotional skills of the youth.
To learn more about how to support and/or get involved with Hotel Hope, visit their website www.hotelhope.org
Grace House
Since 2018, IWES has been supporting programming for residents at Grace House, the only all-women’s residential treatment facility for women recovering from substance use disorders in the Greater New Orleans area. Based on the Women’s Recovery Group (WRG) curriculum created by psychiatrist Dr. Shelly Greenfield, IWES social workers focus weekly sessions on one central theme: Recovery Means Taking Care of Yourself. WRG lessons promote the development of skills related to relapse prevention and opportunities for repair work, healing, and mending relationships. Topics include the effects of drugs and alcohol on health and the brain, coping with stress, gender and recovery, navigating intimate partnerships in recovery, getting help with violence and abuse, safely coping with anger, handling issues of disclosure, exploring the impact of substance use on reproductive health, managing triggers and high-risk situations, and navigating obstacles to recovery. Sessions also include space for mindfulness, the trauma-informed principle of choice, and activities to promote creativity, healing, and self-expression.
To learn more about how to support and/or get connected with Grace House, visit their website www.bridgehouse.org
Puentes Para Invitados (Bridges for Guests)
In July of 2021, IWES formed the Puentes Para Invitados (PPI) project to support the creation of a refugee and asylee ecosystem in New Mexico that builds on local assets and expands the infrastructure for Trauma-Responsive services to migrant individuals and families. Click here to learn more about this new project.
