Pottstown Trauma-Informed Community-Wide Initiative

Pottstown Trauma-informed Community-wide Initiative

Theory of Change Narrative

BACKGROUND:

The impetus for developing a community-wide initiative to make Pottstown a trauma-informed community began with the PEAK discussions around how to best support our youngest residents. Supporting children ages 0-5 has been at the center of what PEAK does, primarily supporting ages 3-5 through Pre-K Counts. The work of PEAK started at the community level and has evolved to meet the needs of children and families. Yet, what we realized was that, in working to support the growth, development and learning of our young children,it became clear that many of our community’s children and their families face complex and multi-faceted barriers. These vary widely but includeobstacles related to homelessness and transience, unemployment, substance abuse,and domestic violence. These individual, family and community-level problems have direct and long-term negative effects on ourchildren’sability to be healthy, happy and safe as they learn and grow. Our teachers from nursery school to high school report that they see more children with increasinglynegative behaviors who are less able to self-regulate. This triggers negative short and long-term consequences such as suspension, to dropping out of school and delinquent to criminal behavior. The systems that are supposed to meet the needs of these children are fragmented and the families find them difficult to access and navigate effectively. Over time, Pottstown hasseen a breakdown of community supports, particularly informal familial and neighborhood ones, to support our families and children at all stages of their lives.

The PEAK initiative’s work with families, educators, health professionals and other social service supports increased our awareness of the impact of trauma in this community and how it affects a child’s ability to learn and thrive. We now recognize the importance of professional development and the need to build competence in early care and education staff through a trauma informed lens. As PEAK staff learned more about trauma-informed approaches and practice and the long-term detrimental effects of ACEs (adverse childhood experiences)[1], it was clear that tackling the myriad barriers facing young children would need to be a community-level effort if we wanted to achieve transformational change in Pottstown.

PEAK was the key initial player in the grass roots effort for this level of community-wide initiative planning, inviting stakeholders to the table and maintaining forward progress of the initiative. PEAK leadership convened a Steering Committee of practitioners, civic and agency leaders and funders to create a Theory of Change for this type of far-reaching work to make Pottstown a trauma-informed community. The Steering Committee came together over several months to create a vision statement for the community and a vision for the initiative. This process included the development of a Theory of Change for how to build such a wide-reaching community effort.

We believe that an initiative to transform how our community, as a whole,understands and treats our young children, our most precious resource, is the best way to impact the number of ACES our young people experience and to fundamentally change the trajectory of their lives. We believe that not only is community-wide change possible in a place the size of Pottstown, but that such an initiative undertaken in a small but diverse community like Pottstown could provide a model that is quantifiable, scalable and replicable beyond our community. There is significant research available on the neuroscience of trauma and on the economic costs of the effects of ACES, from increased family disintegration, special education, drop out rates, and crime. This data makes a clear and compelling economic case to invest nowto avoid long-term damage that erodes the fabric of our community and requires significantly more funds to repair.

INITIATIVE THEORY OF CHANGE

Our vision for Pottstown is a community whose culture promotes trauma-informed knowledge, awareness and practices and where residents access the supports, resources and relationships to achieve optimal social and emotional wellbeing.

Our vision for this initiative is that awell-connected, comprehensive, research-based, trauma-informed system of services, education and training isin place and functioning in Pottstown. We believe that such an initiative is a critical step to achieving our long-term vision for our community.

We believe that there are three critical long-term outcomes we would need to see in place in order to achieve our vision for the initiative. These three major outcomes are:

The establishment of a comprehensive network of systems and organizations to support a trauma informed community. This outcome is based on the assumption that, with education, training and strong communication, we can create sufficient buy-in among formal and informal groups in Pottstown that this type of community-wide initiative can be successful here. Our goal is to strengthen existing bonds among groups and to build the connections among those that are currently disconnected in order to create a strong, well-connected system that would be our pool of engaged and committed individuals and entities through which trauma-informed education and training would take place to create a strong, trauma-informed community. This work begins and ends with an appreciation of the power of human relationships. We believe that there are strengths in the existing bonds in our community, both formal and informal, but that they need to be enhanced in some instances and re-established or built from scratch in others. Without a well-connected network of systems interacting with each other, sharing knowledge and providing more seamless services and supports to individuals and families, we cannot hope to achieve community-wide, lasting change.

Trauma Informed Learning Community established and functioning. This outcome is based on the assumptions that trauma-informed practice and research is ever-evolving and that best practices and evidence-based efforts must be a hallmark of our efforts in order to be successful. As such, we believe that a critical component of this community-wide effort is to establish a training and research hub for our work. This includes an on-going initiative assessment process with a strong community feedback loop to ensure that the community informs all work. We will develop best practices based on the available research and evaluate, on an on-going basis, our processes as well as our successes and challenges. This information must be shared with the community to build momentum as well as to educate and engage individuals, families, agencies and systems.

Well-established marketing and communication system in place. This outcome is predicated on the assumption that there cannot be community-level change in Pottstown without building a significant, and organized effort aimed atcommunity outreach and communications. We will first identify the constituencies and best methods for reaching and engaging those constituencies. Next, communications and messaging will be developed that speaks to the unique needs, interests and perspectives of these diverse constituencies. Campaigns willthenbe designed to share information, educate and engage constituencies. Ultimately there will exist in Pottstown a communications and outreach system to share the information coming from the Trauma-Informed Learning Community so that Pottstown, as an entire community, raises its level of awareness and knowledge about the negative effects of ACEs. This increased level of knowledge is an essential step before we will see the type of behavioral changes that results in transformational change to a community’s culture.We hope to see a Pottstown culture that has integrated trauma informed practices that inform, educate and change behaviors of individuals, families, agencies, and neighborhoods to support our children and our adults, from one generation to the next.

Based on the Steering Committee’s assumptions that these were the most critical outcomes that would need to be achieved in order to realize the initiative’s vision, the Steering Committee identified some of the initial preconditions that must be in place in order to build to these outcomes. The Steering Committee acknowledged that, before it could even begin to reach out to a broader group of experts to create the Task Force that would help build out the goals and the work of the initiative, the Steering Committee itself would need to become more educated about the complexities of trauma-informed practice. As a result of this Theory of Change process, the group came to the realization that one of its initial desired short-term outcomes was increased capacity of the Steering Committee to be trauma-informed generalists. This would be an opportunity to test some of the initial assumptions in the Theory of Change and to pilot some of the work of the Learning Community such as its trainings, and effective identification of foundation level knowledge and education necessary to build buy-in and motivation for change in a community.

There is much more work to be done to articulate the goals and outcomes for the work of the initiative and this will happen organically as the Steering Committee reaches out to build the Task Force. The Task Force will create the infrastructure and mechanisms to collect feedback from the diverse constituencies that must be both the beneficiaries of the education and training but also the agents ofcommunity change.

Some would say that Pottstown is a community in crisis. There is a sense of hopeless and despair and a frustration with the current trends in crime, in family disintegration, and in intergenerational disconnectedness. Yet others would see hope in our community’s tenacity to change and in the support base of caring individuals and agencies ready to be mobilized around a common goal. Regardless of your perspective, the need for change is now. We, as a community, can no longer sit back and hope that someone will come in to transform our community. If not us, then who? It is our community, our responsibility and our future!

APPENDIX A. Additional Notes on Initiative Infrastructure Development

Executive Committee:

Chair of Executive Committee: School District is fiscal agent so would be appropriate to chair Executive Committee (question about who might not feel represented if SD is chair? Transient population, those without children or dropouts-make sure they feel heard and represented)

EC responsibilities:

Has full understanding of grant and expectations/goals for trauma related work
Sets goals/ time lines for moving forward
Desired outcomes based on different benchmarks
Deploys resources to support each sub committee
Develops policy that will guide decision making

Executive Committee Members – One representative from each of following organizations:

Pottstown School District
PEAK Coordinator
Creative Health Services
Mayor’s Office
Police Dept.
Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation
United Way
Cluster of Religious Community
Early Childhood Representative

Subcommittees:

Chairs of each subcommittee are selected by the Executive Committee (with input from the full Task Force)

Research/Training
Network Management
Professional Development/coaching Representative -
Marketing and Communications representative -
Fiscal Management representative

Chairman of each subcommittee recommends sub-committee members

Questions about infrastructure in terms of chairing committees/ coordinating the different pieces of work:

Do we need a network coordinator or a program coordinator? Need to have one person to funnel feedback through. Is one person enough? This may require money and the amount of work needed is determining factor.
Who will chair each committee? Will this chair be paid, part-time person, etc.?
Perhaps need to look at TCNs model and think about relying on volunteers to chair committees. How would we see this function? How can things be shifted in PEAK and other agencies that are interested in our work and how would we sell this? It was agreed that we sell to agencies working with particular populations and get a buy-in.
Could we involve PMMC?
Acknowledge that there are multiple layers and ways to create the network. Different for community at large, service providers, and those being served.
Should we look at it this way: 1) If network for research, this is how we do it. 2) If network is for training, this is how we do it. Need to think about how to slice it.

APPENDIX B. Additional Notes on Network Development

Our Vision for the network = Army

What type of network are we seeking? TCN, Chamber, Affinity Group?

Assumptions in our overall network development:

Everything assumes that agencies are willing to work together.
PEAK sites have standard curriculum but are not the same
Clients have instability
Hard to reach populations have buy in
The network must have a diverse cross section of people

Rationale and Assumptions for our Goals:

Create awareness of initiative and building relationships
Rationale: What good is it if we don’t get the word out?Need to start to foster relationships.
Assumptions:
Committee organizations will lend their networks
Assuming buy in from any organization
Keep in mind:
Aiming for warm and personal invitations and not mass marketing
Language matters even at this early stage, remember “block captain” example

ID of organizations & networks in existence, community needs assessment.
Rationale: This is one of the first steps in getting to the long-term goal of a comprehensive well connected network because we need to have a comprehensive understanding of the landscape if we are going to building something that is truly community-wide. If we miss organizations or groups in this early part of the process, we could be building something that will be rejected by certain constituencies or not have sufficient buy-in needed within key groups.
Assumptions:
In Pottstown we already have several networks of organizations working together that we can leverage for this initiative. (TCN, etc.)
Keep in mind:
Critical for all pieces to “sell” to the enlistment organization
“So what if I’m a business person in town and am selling to high ACE score people?”
“What’s in it for me?”
Needs Assessment, not necessarily effective with the landline. Consider door to door, in person surveys, identify hubs in town, make it statistically significant

ID of key leaders in different systems/organizations who can be champions for initiative
Rationale: They already have the trust of the people they serve. The message from that person will be easier to get the message out. Use of existing networks. Decision makers and authority. We lose out on people’s talent and time without boss buy in.
These people already have trust of the people they serve and would be easier to get the message out through them instead of through a new person. They can have authority and can be decision makers for their organization. Need to have everyone from top to bottom of organization invested and buying in. Need to represent diversified populations and understand why they are doing it especially when they are selling it. Champions need to be sold first and then they need to sell it to base level service provider.
Assumptions:
They can invest time; organizational investment
They can buy into a universal message/mission
They have a deeper interest in training, personal development, facilitation, and network expansion.
Agencies will represent diversified populations.
People that work for them are going to be willing to participate.
Need for thorough training to know “why” we are doing it.
Keep in mind:
Identifying key leaders does not equate to connecting with and engaging the community.
Those champions need the background, need to be sold, and then need to be able to sell it. What’s in it for them?

Creation of core group to help build training, peer exchange, network development
Rationale:Because we’ll be able to leverage the work of the other committees into the community.
Assumptions:
Different perspectives of community feedback. Receiving and delivering.
Keep in mind:
Feedback loop is very important.
People are going to complain more likely than they are going to give a compliment.
Is there a way to determine how many people are actually contacted?

Community Feedback loop established for information sharing, feedback and assessments
Rationale: The feedback loop is very important and will give further direction. Could have an advisory committee of sorts made up of community members. Could provide quarterly report to all committees.
Assumption: We can’t get feedback from everyone. Get different perspectives from different levels not just from the community – people receiving and people delivering. If we poll people, would need funding. Are we able to determine how many people were contacted? Was it a small number contacted? What is the base number? How many people were contacted in poll until they received one naysayer? Idea would be to read a sign and have a scanning mechanism you could scan with your phone to join.

A. Glossary of groups in existence that could be part of building the networks:

Clergy: / Emergency Services / Latino / African American Community / School / Direct Service / TCN / Businesses

Op Inspiration
Connection to Cluster and spinoffs
Momentum
Chamber
Collaborative at Family Center
TCHC
Project Purpose
Foundation
Operation Backpack
Bethel AME Food Pantry
Bright Hope Food Pantry

Police should be a resource possibly under Sherriff’s Department / DARE Program.
Mission Kids
Montgomery County Emergency Services at Norristown State Hospital.
Judge Palladino: youth basketball coach and provides outreach through his program.

CCLU
ACLAMO
Early Headstart

Montgomery County Community College
Pottstown School District
PEAK
Progressions
Coventry Christian School
West Mont Christian
Grace Lutheran
St. Aloysius
The Hill School

Montgomery Health Dept.
Progressions
Pottstown YMCA
Office of Children and Youth
Juvenile Justice System
Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities
Community Health & Dental Care
Creative Health Services
Visiting Nurses Association
Pottstown Memorial Medical Center
Pediatricians/Primary Care Providers
Early Head Start
Family Center & Family Services Project HEARTH
Women’s Center of Montgomery County
Salvation Army
Project Purpose @ Coventry Christian School
Olivet Boys & Girls Club

90 orgs.

Infra.Exists to build from /

Chamber of Commerce