*Note: While Sarasota, FL is not Central Florida, it felt relevant to share this opinion piece here to examine what other Florida cities are doing to advocate for and build resilient communities.
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...Sarasota Strong seeks to build “a community that cares for itself” by “empowering people to thrive through trauma education, connection, and healing.” Its metaphoric symbol will be the banyan, a tree that begins its life clinging to another plant and eventually produces aerial shoots from its branches that become new roots and sources of strength and stability.
The concept is similar to the “Self-Healing Communities Model” funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Washington state I wrote about previously, which seeks to empower communities “to recognize their own ability to make change and provide a sense of hope that what they do will make a difference.”
Among the Sarasota Strong organizers are an abuse survivor who leads intimate trauma-informed work groups, a contemporary dancer who has incorporated trauma healing in her classes, a longtime consultant on community initiatives and a handful of deeply committed lay people. Community members can become involved by helping with education and outreach efforts, facilitating small groups for trauma survivors or sharing their talents or business services to increase engagement.
[For more on this story, written by Carrie Seidman of the Palm Beach Post, go to: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/...uma-in-our-community].
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