From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Notable Gifts: Robins Foundation awards $500,000 in Community Innovation Grants
"The impact of childhood trauma persists not only for the child, but also for the people who try to help.
Giving support to both in an effort to build resiliency is the idea that won this year’s $500,000 Community Innovation Grant from the Robins Foundation.
ChildSavers collaborated with Stop Child Abuse Now, also known as SCAN, and Richmond Public Schools on what’s described as a visionary project designed to help students and teachers in Richmond’s East End schools overcome the impact of childhood trauma.
Four other awards to runners-up raised the total amount of Robins innovation grants to $1.2 million.
The MCV Foundation won $250,000 for its work with the Richmond Police Department on the RVA Alternative Pathways Model. United Methodist Family Services, 50CAN and Virginia Local Initiative Support Corp. each received $160,000 for their projects.
The Richmond Public Schools Resiliency Partnership was developed by ChildSavers after a plea last summer from Richmond Superintendent Dana Bedden, according to the Robins announcement.
Bedden wanted help in dealing with the impact of violence experienced by children, which affects children’s school achievement and performance.
The ChildSavers collaboration will include training in resiliency and other critical social skills for students and school employees. In-school clinicians also will provide support services to students on site.
“Research tells us that the impact of childhood trauma — whether it be from a single violent episode or years of living in hardship — severely inhibits a child’s growth and well-being,” said Juliet Shield-Taylor, Robins Foundation board vice president and chair of the selection committee.
“This project nurtures children’s innate resiliency, by helping them heal and teaching skills for overcoming the profound consequences of trauma. It is exactly the kind of collaboration and innovation that has been a hallmark of the Community Innovation Grant, and we are thrilled to help make it possible.”
The partnership and its pilot program will roll out at Martin Luther King Middle School and expand to the seven schools that feed Armstrong High School.
If successful, the program will serve as a model for other schools and districts.
“Too many children in our community experience and witness continuous trauma. The long-term impact of this exposure results in adverse life outcomes — disruptive behaviors, poor academic performance, incarceration and abuse to self and others,” said L. Robert Bolling, CEO of ChildSavers.
“We begin this project by asking the question, ‘What has happened to this child?’ rather than, ‘What is wrong with this child?’ This framework helps to create an environment where traumatized children flourish. We thank the Robins Foundation for being a partner on the road to resilience for our children.”
From SCAN’s perspective, the project continues the work of a trauma-informed coalition that seeks to understand and mitigate the impacts of childhood trauma, said Jeanine Harper, the organization’s executive director.
“The real mantra of the trauma-informed movement,” she said, “is instead of asking what’s wrong with this child, you ask what’s strong.
“It’s a different world because we understand trauma so differently. ... (Through the new partnership) we can work directly with children and caregivers to better understand strategies and ways to help that child, that organization, that family, that community to become more resilient.”
This is the third year for the Community Innovation Grant, which attracted more than 100 applications for funding.
“The quality of the Top 5 proposals required our response,” Shield-Taylor said. “The foundation could not deny the impact each of the initiatives would have on the future of the Richmond community. With the efforts proposed by each, the children win and the transformation begins.”
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