The San Diego Trauma Informed Guide Team (SD-TIGT) meets bimonthly to share and learn about best trauma-informed practices throughout the San Diego region. The Trauma Informed Journey presentation is a highlight of each meeting. A SD-TIGT member volunteers to share their experience as to how they began implementing trauma-informed practices, challenges that they have overcome, lessons learned, and examples of their successes. A common denominator for all presentations is demonstrated advocacy and commitment to promoting resilience and wellbeing.
In January, Barry Pollard (Pollard), the Urban Collaborative Project’s (UCP) founder presented UCP’s Trauma-Informed Journey. UCP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that was established three years ago. Currently, there are 1.5 full time employees. The nonprofit focuses on mobilizing members of the Southeast neighborhood of San Diego to identify and address issues such as safety, civic engagement, health and infrastructure. Their focus is on providing support and strengthening the belief of community members that there is hope for change.
The work of the Urban Collaborative Project (UCP) first began in the Valencia/Lincoln Park area of the Southeast neighborhood when they established a group based on the resident leadership academy model. Members of the Southeast neighborhood were brought together to identify ways they could transform the community. The facilitator helped create a safe environment where community members were able to address their concerns, prioritize them and identify steps that they needed to take to improve conditions. After their first meeting, the group decided that they wanted to improve the health of the community by improving the quality of food in the only grocery store in the community.
Seven women from the community started a letter writing campaign to the Chief Executive Officer of Kroger describing the poor food quality and bad customer service. The team was then invited to Orange County for a series of meetings with their executive team. This led then to a $1,000,000 investment from Krogers to improve the quality of the store in Market Street Plaza. The community members participated in conversations with Kroger to consult on ways they could make the store better. After this win, the community felt emboldened to lead a process of change in their community.
With a desire to improve their community, teams of community members formed and collaborated with UCP to plan ways in which they could beautify the community, that is inclusive and could “build” community pride. The teams identified Euclid Avenue and Imperial Avenue as the main corridors of their community. It was there that they decided to paint murals promoting better health, knowledge, and civic engagement. Community Artists (SESD/Encanto Arts Initiative) collaborated with other community members to design these murals.
This initial movement led to collaboration with a national effort named Better Block- aimed at helping communities beautify their neighborhood. Together, Better Block, UCP, and Southeast community members learned that there were many barriers in the city to improve the neighborhood’s infrastructure. This led to additional conversations with the city to consider how they could create a process so that community members who want to beautify their neighborhood are able to do so in a more streamlined and equitable manner.
Over the last three years, the Urban Collaborative Project (UCP) has continued to convene members of the Southeastern community and together consider ways in which they could strengthen the social fabric and increase quality of life in the community. Through safe environments where community members practiced listening and voicing the needs they saw in their community and through the confidence that comes from action UCP is on its way to building a more resilient community.
Lynne Sharpe Underwood, a friend of the San Diego Trauma Informed Guide Team, encouraged Pollard to get more involved in the resiliency movement. She sent him articles so he could read more about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and adopt the language of resiliency. As Pollard looked through the articles he connected that the work of UCP was trauma informed- they were helping community members find hope, feel safe, build their capacity, and acknowledge their experience. Additionally he felt that the articles she sent helped him and UCP better understand the underlying source for the issues in the Southeast neighborhood and would help them address the source rather than just symptoms. This understanding, although new, is starting to change the direction of how UCP approaches its work in the Southeast.
UCP is continuing to partner with organizations through their work in the Southeast and participation in the San Diego Trauma Informed Guide Team to both share their learnings and to learn from others.
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