Our name: Sarasota Strong
Our Mission: To promote community-wide trauma awareness through education, connection, and healing.
Our Vison: To create a community that cares for itself.Speaker Lorrie Simmons shared the powerful and traumatic history that led her to found Victory Over Violence of FL. She also outlined the four-step process she used to gain freedom from her own trauma. First, forgive others, and most importantly, yourself. Second, replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations, “You are not a victim, you are a survivor.” Third, educate yourself about the trauma that affected you and your relationships. And lastly, empower others by sharing your journey to freedom and encouraging them to achieve the same.
The interactive forum allowed for others to share their own stories as well as ask questions like What can we do? Answers from the group included: fix the taboo of talking about trauma, share resources, facilitate support services, build an empowered community, and - the critical powerhouse behind becoming trauma-informed - share stories. Others suggested compiling a reference list of support services, healing yoga, counseling in schools, trauma therapy, and much more. Groups began to form around specific activities, including community outreach and education, facilitating trauma healing, and working on community-level issues.
A big thank you to Pastor Jo and Helen Neal-Ali for hosting our event, and to everyone that attended. SPREAD THE WORD! Childcare will be provided at the next event at the Community Bible Church.
Coming up:
We hope to see you at our next event on Monday, September 23rd at the UCC church in Venice from 6pm-7: 30 pm. Flyer coming soon!
SAVE THE DATE Sunday, October 13th from 3 pm – 5 pm for a community showing of the film “Broken Places.” Thanks to the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for hosting this event! |
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