The Los Angeles Trauma Informed Task Force launched their first Community Roundtable on Tuesday, July 14th, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. A rousing success, their location was at City Council Member Mike Bonin's Westchester Field Office located at 7166 W. Manchester Avenue in Los Angeles, CA 90045.
With over 75 individuals in attendance, the collective synergy was palpable! With the Steering Committee's welcoming environment, attendees received the generosity of excellent food and resources prior to the event beginning. The Steering Committee is a group of advocates who have come together with the intention of bringing awareness and promoting Trauma Informed Care practices in Greater Los Angeles. Their hand-out brochure notes "We are privileged and humbled to serve as Champions for greater connections through the evolution of a task force in our extraordinary city! Our hope is to co-create with the community, a culture of safety, mutuality and collaboration, empowerment, voice and choice, trust and transparency, and that values gender, historical and cultural context."
Reiterating these values, the Steering Committee's inclusion of their members was reflected with each of them having a key role throughout the event. Following introductions of the Steering Committee, a Reflection was initiated through grounding each attendee's intention within and co-creating a calming inclusion as one collective energy.
The inspirational Featured Speaker, Norma Cumpian, shared her heart with the audience through expressing her story of trauma and adversities throughout her life. Norma has endured tragedy with grit, resilience, moxie and an amazing sense of humor. Working for Restorative Justice Works, Norma mentors children visiting their families in prison.
We learned more about the Public Council's landmark lawsuit filed against the Compton public schools by students and teachers. Their charge is ensuring all the school in the Compton School District are Trauma Informed.
Breaking into small group circles, the Steering Committee moderated each group with three key questions.
* What brings you here on a personal or professional level?
* Since LA is becoming more trauma informed, what is one next step that you are passionate about supporting?
* As a member of your community or sector, what do you need more of to become more connected and/or supported in this movement?
Each individual was encouraged to share their lens on one of more of the questions. A plethora of ideas and responses were brought forth. When the large group reconvened, many suggestions were shared with everyone.
Some of the suggested Next Steps included;
- an Assets Map will be distributed to the entire List Serve with the invitation of inclusion of everyone in attendance
- creating Special Interest Groups and invitations for individuals to align respectively
- become a Member of the ACEs Connection LA Group (an individual had inquired if anyone had viewed the Resiliency Tool Kit 1.0 posted that day)
- the Sign-In log will be emailed to everyone in attendance
- the Steering Committee will send a monthly email update to everyone on the List Serve
- the creation of a "Day of Action" as an upcoming event where attendees sign up for their area of interest
- hosting Quarterly meetings at different regions of Los Angeles County
With November 10th the next Quarterly Meeting, all attendees were encouraged to engage with the trauma informed, resiliency building movement through signing up on the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TraumaInformedLA and the ACEs Connection - Los Angeles County Group.
How to join ACEs Connection and a group. — https://www.pacesconnection.com/...join-aces-connection
An exciting opportunity was shared to participate in the Community Safety Conference at USC on November 14th. Focusing on Public Safety and Re-Entry into the communities from incarceration, please contact Dulce Acosta for more information at USCdulce@gmail.com
Congratulations to Olivia, Stacey, Susan and the entire Steering Committee for an exceptional Launch! Your welcoming environment, caring inclusion, and inspirational energy co-created an amazing platform for every participant to engage in any capacity they are passionate about. As your brochure hand out notes, "As a Steering Committee, we want to host quarterly roundtables that serve as a safe place to connect a community of advocates, leaders, agencies, and Greater Los Angeles residents." And you did! Well done!
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