Community Impact Report 2017 - 2019 TRACEs

Please see the attached community impact report written by TRACEs in Central Oregon! 
From the report: 
Our story is right there in the name. TRACEs.
Yes, it’s an acronym: trauma, resilience and adverse childhood experiences.

But the real story happens when these letters are put together to form a word that means shadows, echoes, and imprints—like the long-lasting effects of trauma. This movement is about teaching people to see the traces; to see the shadows that trauma such as generational poverty, historical oppression or adverse childhood experiences casts on health, school, substance abuse, relationships, employment, and happiness.

But it’s not enough to remove the blinders. The real power of this work is recognizing that there is an antidote to the pain of trauma: resilience.

We are still learning, but researchers do know that resilience is the common thread uniting people who move through adversity to “navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural and physical resources that sustain their well-being,” (Ungar, 2011).

The TRACEs movement in Central Oregon is about digging deep into the work of nurturing resilience. It’s about so much more than grit and bootstraps, though. It’s about making it easier to be resilient. It means having more positive, caring relationships and community experiences. It’s about supporting a massive partnership of individuals, organizations, schools and community groups working together to measure it, track it, celebrate it, and learn together.

It’s about creating a place where we all belong.