Note: PACEs Connection is in dire financial straits. We need you, our almost 58,000 members, to help cover the loss of foundation funding that was promised and did not come through. Unfortunately, staff pay and hours have had to be cut for December. The good news is that, since sounding the alarm this summer, we’ve raised more than $52,000. Thank you to all who’ve donated. To get a sense of who your fellow members are, who is donating, and why, please read and share this seventh in a series of donor profiles. Now that you know we need your help, please join Sofiya Asedrem and make a generous donationto PACEs Connection!
Sofiya Asedrem is busy. She manages the Creating a Resilient Community (CRC) Network convened out of the Peace and Justice Institute at Valencia College and the PACEs Connection Central Florida website that advances and reports on all the work. There’s also a CRC conference each spring that brings in people from all over the country, and myriad other educational events throughout the year.
Deadly weather challenges and epic growth in her international community demand all of her skills. Her education—a bachelor’s degree in international affairs at the George Washington University where she was sponsored twice by the U.S. Department of State, and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Central Florida—is foundational to her success in community development. She also relies heavily on her expertise in mental health and trauma, women's empowerment and gender issues, environmental sustainability, peace studies, and agricultural programs.
Another support in her work? The impact of PACEs Connection.
“PACEs Connection has been an immense factor in the growth of our group (the CRC Network),” she says. “We have been able to grow to over 500 members and 250 organizations in just three years.” The group is a cross-sector collective impact movement transforming the region into one of prevention, hope, healing and resilience for all, she continues. It provides space for information sharing as well as providing many opportunities for growth and networking/learning from other communities and experts around the nation.
“I was motivated to become involved with PACEs Connection because I saw opportunities for growth both internally (as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc.) and externally–as a working professional looking to help my organization and community along the journey of becoming trauma-informed,” she says. “With its future-oriented initiatives and scientific and expertise-led approach, PACEs Connection is a go-to resource.
Changing the world with PACEs science
How does Asedrem see PACEs science making a difference in the world?
“My local community is facing so many challenges that are a microcosm of the world’s challenges—from the pandemic, to recent hurricanes, to community violence and economic disparities,’ she says.
“I hope PACEs science will change my community and the world by providing an awareness of positive and adverse childhood experiences, teaching individuals how to heal from toxic stress, and welcoming others to approach fellow humans in a way that is more trauma-informed,” she says. “By learning about PACEs science, I think we will be able to realize the goal of making mental health a human right and public good. As a result, we will see greater social well-being—providing people with the opportunity to live healthy, meaningful lives and contribute to the greater good of our communities.”
Asedrem is one of several members of the CRC Network to have given multiple PACEs science presentations in the community. All told, members of the Network, led by Peace and Justice Institute director Rachel Allen, have made some 240 presentations over the last four years!
A paradigm shift to a trauma-informed culture.
Asedrem supports PACEs Connection because it is one of the organizations actively dedicated to creating a paradigm shift to create a culture founded on the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences, and whose policies and practices are expressed in trauma-informed ways.
“By investing in PACEs Connection, members of our community can help communities address the root causes of some of the deep challenges we all face,” she adds.
Asedrem leverages her PACE Connection website to get the word out about resources and events. Within a day of Hurricane Ian’s record destruction, Asedrem hadposted a blog on PACEs Connection full of resources for her community, and leveraged the ability to share her blog out on other social media in calling her fellow Central Floridians to “look for the helpers.”
Asedrem encourages fellow members of PACEs Connection to join her in making a generous, tax-deductible donation to PACEs Connection here.
If you'd prefer to mail your gift rather than give it online, here's how...
Make check payable to:
TSNE (Third Sector New England, our fiscal sponsor) and write PACEs Connection Donation on the memo line.
Mail check to:
PACEs Connection, c/o TSNE, 89 South Street, Suite 700, Boston, MA 02111
Making a wire transfer or need Tax ID information?
Please contact Carey Sipp, Director of Strategic Partnerships, at csipp@pacesconnection.com
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