^{Photo taken at the Eastern region TICN Community Conversation (l to r) Melissa McGinn, Greater Richmond SCAN; Dr. Janice Underwood, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for VA; First Lady Northam, and VA State Senator Montgomery Mason.}

While political eyes are on the November 2 Virginia election as an early electoral test for the Biden Administration and precursor to 2022 mid-term elections, the leaders of Virginia’s 27 Trauma-Informed Community Networks (TICNs, pronounced tic-Ns) are building awareness and support for their work that should be compelling for the victor, regardless of political party. The two candidates—former Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, and businessman Glenn Youngkin, a Republican—are in a too-close-to-call race.

The Virginia TICNs have enjoyed a strong partnership with Governor Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist, and First Lady Pamela Northam, a former pediatric occupational therapist and science educator. In an age of extreme polarization, trauma-informed initiatives have received bi-partisan support but the transition to a new governor entails some risk to the partnership with state government. The TICN leadership is preparing for this transition by building support for the work by amplifying the local efforts across the Commonwealth.

As described in a story by PACEs Connection staff Laurie Udesky, First Lady Northam is leading a tour around the Commonwealth entitled “On the Road to Resilience” to highlight the work being done around trauma-informed care and resilience-building. Four regional TICN Community Conversations have been held, says Jenkins, “with the intention of celebrating and elevating individuals, organizations, and communities that support children and families in the face of adversity and demonstrate significant resilience both before and during the pandemic.” Two of the four meetings were conducted both in-person and virtually.

The first TICN in Virginia is the network for Greater Richmond. All of the networks are multi-sector and cover most of the Commonwealth. According to the TICN website, the networks are “focused on building resilience and preventing and mitigating the impact of trauma in their communities and creating a more trauma-informed and resilient culture in Virginia.” Most of the state is covered by one of the 27 networks, covering rural, urban, and suburban regions. The Great Richmond SCAN convenes all of the TICNs on a bi-monthly basis and provides support and technical assistance to the networks and distributes a bi-weekly eNote with news and resources.

The August 16 eNote announced for the first time that state general funds are being allocated to the VA TICNs. It reported "$1,000,000 [of American Rescue Plan funds] to the Department of Social Services for the Virginia Trauma-Informed Community Network (TICN) to provide a community awareness campaign, education, professional development, mini grants, and other initiatives to support existing networks." These funds will help maintain the momentum established in one administration and carry it into the next.

Virginia is different from other states (it’s a Commonwealth, not a state, for starters) in that governors are limited to one non-consecutive four-year term and the timing of the outgoing budget means that the incoming administration operates under the prior administration’s budget for a time. Therefore, a transition in Virginia is inevitable, unlike other states where the governor can serve multiple terms.

Melissa McGinn, Greater Richmond SCAN’s Director of Community Programs, is also the State Coordinator of Virginia’s Trauma Informed Community Networks. She says the VA TICNs Community Conversations Tour is an important effort to build awareness of and support for the work of the TICNs that will help sustain them during the gubernatorial transition. Other efforts include the May 2-8 Resilience Week, Virginia, the state’s allocation of $1 million of federal ARPA funds for TICNs that will be available into next year, and ongoing collaboration with the children’s advocacy organization, Voices for Virginia’s Children, among other partner organizations.

Virginia and other states across the U.S. have mobilized support for trauma-informed care and services among state and local officials—both political appointees and elected civil servants.  Chidi Jenkins, advisor on Childhood Trauma & Resiliency in Virginia’s Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, is an appointee in the current Northam Administration. She leads policy efforts around childhood trauma and resilience for the state and staffs the Children’s Cabinet, established by executive order. The Trauma-Informed Work Group within the Children’s Cabinet, according to Jenkins, is made up of “engaged, cross-sector stakeholders from education to behavioral health to juvenile justice that has brought awareness to and built support for work across the state including that of the TICNs.” This work provides a foundation to build upon even if the Children’s Cabinet is dissolved in the incoming administration.

Jenkins says the Work Group “submits an annual report in December to the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees and the Commission on Youth and will likely include the information and recommendations gathered from this legacy Resilience Tour.” In addition to the specific regional meetings held around Virginia, other events and gatherings have been held with home visiting personnel and clients, early childhood and K-12 educators, individuals involved in foster care, and frontline service providers. In addition, Jenkins said, “a powerful youth roundtable elevating the voices of young people” was held as part of the tour.

For more background on the Virginia TICNs, here is a link to a story by PACEs Connection founder and publisher, Jane Stevens, and another story by Anndee Hochman. Other stories have been written by PACEs Connection reporter, Laurie Udesky, about hospitals in VA becoming trauma-informed with support from the TICN. Here is the link to a story about Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center in Midlothian, Virginia and another link to a story about Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital serving Richmond.