Building the Movement to Prevent/Heal Climate Traumas & Promote Environmental Justice - 8th Workshop

As part of the national "Building the Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience", our eighth workshop focuses on preventing and healing climate traumas and promote environmental justice. This workshop was held virtually on April 15, 2022. The accelerating global climate-ecosystem-biodiversity emergency will increasingly disrupt every aspect of society. It is a "wicked" problem, meaning it results from numerous factors that interact in new and surprising ways to defy standard solutions. The pervasive distresses and traumas it generates are also "wicked" problems: they result from multiple forces that often interact non-linearly and will, over time, impact everyone and every community on earth. No single profession, organization, or program can prevent or heal the resulting tsunami of mental health and psycho-social-spiritual problems. We must think and respond through a population lens, not an individual or family focus. Coalitions of local residents, groups, and organizations must come together to plan, implement, and continually improve just and equitable, culturally-accountable, multisystemic strategies that help the entire population--all adults and youth--build their capacity for mental wellness and transformational resilience for relentless adversities. A special emphasis must be placed on disengaged and marginalized groups. Coordinated in conjunction with our sponsor, International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC), this next webinar will include presentations by people engaged in one of the five interrelated foundational areas ITRC research has found must be addressed to build universal capacity to prevent and heal climate traumas: Build robust social connections across boundaries in communities; Create supportive local built/physical, economic, and ecological conditions; Establish universal mental wellness and resilience literacy; Engage residents in specific practices that sustain mental wellness and resilience; and Organize ongoing opportunities for residents to heal their traumas. Actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt to climate impacts, must be integrated into these five focal areas. The agenda included: • Dr. Diana (Denni) Fishbein (NPSC, UNC, PSU) & Jesse Kohler (CTIPP), Opening and Welcome • Bob Doppelt, Coordinator, International Transformational Resilience Coalition and author of Preventing and Healing Climate Trauma: A Guide to Building Resilience and Hope in Communities (Taylor and Francis Publishing, forthcoming) • Dr. James Gordon, Executive Director, Center for Mind-Body Medicine • Daniel Homsey, Director, The San Francisco Neighborhood Empowerment Program • Jacqui Patterson, Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project • Howard Lawrence, Coordinator, Abundant Alberta, Canada • Jerry Tello, Co-Founder and Director of Training and Capacity Building, National Compadres Network • Jenna Quinn, PACEs Connections • Bob Doppelt: Actions needed to build population-level capacity for mental wellness and resilience for the climate emergency, and closing thoughts. “Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience” comprises a series of nine virtual workshops held every two weeks from January 7, 2022, through April 29, 2022. The half-day workshops are designed to provide information and tools for community coalitions to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-focused and healing-centered approaches into their local systems. These include child welfare, education, health care, justice and faith-based systems. Themes across all sectors include diversity, equity and inclusion; racial justice; community voice; a cross-sector approach; opportunities for youth; individual, families, and communities. The goal is to reduce individual, organizational and community exposure to trauma, particularly in underserved and marginalized populations. People with experience in relevant areas will lead each session for participants, which include community stakeholders, practitioners and administrators. The series is presented by the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice, the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives, and PACEs Connection. It is co-sponsored by over a dozen national organizations. For more information, visit: https://www.npscoalition.org/prevent-...