14:59:17 Good afternoon. Good morning to anyone and everyone. That is joining us today.
14:59:21 My name is Claudia Cherinos, and I will be your host and moderator side with Alyssa Rangold
14:59:35 We started the webinar just a little bit early to allow all our attendees to join us
14:59:46 So please allow us a few minutes to allow those who are still entering.
14:59:52 Please keep in mind that this event is being recorded. We have also enabled the close captioning.
15:00:37 if by any chance any of our participants are multiple individuals in a conference room, or something like that, we would appreciate if you could please, email and M.
15:00:51 V. R C. At M usc.edu. The list of attendees.
15:03:04 excited to see you here
15:03:10 Today, we wanna acknowledge the survivors of the Sandy Hook School shooting at the end of their civil case, and those impacted by Parkland mass shooting as they're Sentencing hearing comes to a close we also want to welcome you to the fourth national town.
15:03:31 Hall, sponsored by the Nmbvrc.
15:03:37 Nearly 300 participants have registered for today to include victim survivor services, emergency. Mac.
15:03:50 Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. Nearly 300 participants have registered for today's Town Hall, representing 38 States and 6 countries, besides The United States.
15:04:03 Top 3 professions for today's participants include victim survivor services, emergency management and mental and health and behavioral health.
15:04:14 And today's fun. Fact: nearly 6 out of 10 participants have experienced an Mbi in their community, and over half have responded to it.
15:04:27 Nbi. In a professional capacity. So there's great expertise, not only in our presenters today, but also in our audience.
15:04:37 Thank you for participating
15:04:44 Some housekeeping announcements that we will have
15:04:49 Today, this national town hall will be recorded with the recording slide deck and resources featured.
15:04:59 The chat function available at the on our website, and Nbv Ourcorg: and thank you to many of you who sent questions for our presenters in advance.
15:05:12 We will have save some time at the end of this seminar to answer as many questions as possible.
15:05:22 Identified our learning objectives for today.
15:05:28 As posted on the slide that you can see on the screen
15:05:38 Our National Hall presenters include Eugenia Pedley, our senior program manager.
15:05:49 Maggie Feinstein program director from 1027 health partnership
15:06:00 Healing partnership. I'm sorry to Neil Pereira from Las Vegas, Jesse Ariz from Orlando, and our own Alyssa Rhine gold
15:06:15 And Seymour is unable to join us today.
15:06:23 I will now introduce you to Eugeneia Pedley.
15:06:27 She is the senior program manager for the mass violence and terrorism, terrorism and terrorism.
15:06:34 At the office for victims of crime Ovc. Within the us Department of Justice.
15:06:42 Since joining Ovc. In June. 2012 Eugenia has worked with communities in organizations across the country.
15:06:50 That request anti-terrorism and emergency assistance program.
15:07:18 thank you, Claudia, and good afternoon once again to everyone.
15:07:22 I'm so glad you can join us today. This webinar really builds on the previous town halls.
15:07:30 Excuse me a second. My computer seems to have frozen here, so please bear with me This Webinar really builds on a 3 previous town halls.
15:07:40 We talked about the importance. Of planning appropriate resources and an effective route.
15:07:48 While all those activities consider victims perspectives. Resilience, and recovery is really only about victims.
15:07:55 We know that mass, violence, events, rock survivors, and the broader community, and in an instant lives have changed forever, and things will never really be the same?
15:08:06 So the question then becomes, How can we help victims be resilient?
15:08:10 And adapt to their new normal. To some degree every mass balance event has a different effect on each survivor, and every incident has its own unique features. There are also ripple effects.
15:08:22 Throughout the community go beyond the actual victims, and all of these aspects need to be considered when determining the best approaches to helping survivors and their families.
15:08:35 One of the things people learn about today is resiliency centers and I'm pleased that so many of ovc's a eap mass balance grants have funding for them in general these centers can provide a single point of entry for victims to access 360 degree rack
15:08:52 around behavioral and mental, health, medical, legal, financial and other services.
15:08:58 Many of them provide on-site services, and also help connect victims with appropriate community services. Some centers.
15:09:07 There's also room for activities that cannot be funded under Ovc injunctive programs that may be appropriate for some of the victims, because resilience centers can be both comprehensive and flexible They are often a valuable tool to help survivors so with that i
15:09:33 Great. Thank you, Eugenia. Well, welcome, everybody as Claudia mentioned.
15:09:40 I'm Melissa Rine Gold. I'm from the national mass.
15:09:43 Violence, victimization, resource, center. I direct our preparedness.
15:09:46 Response and recovery to division, and I'm going to start us off a little bit today.
15:09:51 But by talking just in general about what resilience and recovery you know what those terms mean.
15:09:59 talk a little bit about some information we've gathered been gathering from some communities that have experienced mass violence and understanding kind of the larger impact on communities talk a little bit about components that can go into fostering resilience, in recovery and then we'll be handing it.
15:10:16 Off to some of our other experts, here. That will talk about how they've been implementing that in their communities.
15:10:22 So to start off, I just wanted to highlight that there, you know, there are a number of different definitions out there that to define resiliency and recovery, resilience is really the process of adapting in the face of adversity and stress from my perspective resilience does not
15:10:39 necessarily mean the absence of difficulty or distress. It is, it is about the process of sort of managing that to managing change in one's life, while carrying the challenges of trauma and stress and grief along with them recovery is really the restoration of safety and empowerment.
15:11:03 now some things to consider when thinking about how to foster resiliency, and recovering your communities that have been impacted by mass violence It's really important to recognize that there's no one size that fits all that communities are unique individuals are unique and grief grief, and trauma
15:11:25 responses. There are things that we do know that we can potentially predict for some folks.
15:11:29 But it's also unique for each individual, in their experiences.
15:11:34 And that context of each of event is important in each community is important.
15:11:39 So some things to kind of bear in mind, just wanna highlight a little bit.
15:11:45 This is a community. Phases after disaster that Samhsa has.
15:11:51 has put out. This is this is defining disaster.
15:11:55 Thinking about communities at large. Mass violence is different clearly from a disaster.
15:12:00 But I do want to highlight some areas of potential similarity in some areas of differences.
15:12:05 Again. This is thinking about communities at large, not necessarily individuals, but large.
15:12:10 You know, community that's been impacted by mass violence.
15:12:14 One difference, a big difference from a disaster is that in a disaster there's usually some type of pre disaster, warning ability for some folks to prepare, perhaps right.
15:12:25 and a mass violence that doesn't always occur, and often there is no warning on a community based level, and there's no no ability to prepare.
15:12:33 You have an impact often that you see in a community.
15:12:37 After an event, you will sometimes see sort of the community coming together to support itself to support each other.
15:12:45 Unifying, which is, It's a wonderful supportive aspect, and we can see some community for S.
15:12:51 For some communities again, not all some community cohesion initially in the early stages, as it folks are coming together and supporting one another.
15:12:58 Let me tend to see over time. Sometimes some disillusionment where emotions tend to drop that trauma queues can impact the community at different times whether that's other mass violence, incidents whether it's information about the incident at hand and they're going to be
15:13:17 ongoing queuing events that can exacerbate community response.
15:13:23 We also see response. Emotions can drop in communities around the one year memorial time period, and then we can see hopefully over time some sort of reconstruction new beginnings as communities try to make sense and try to figure out how to put pieces back together and working through their grief, after a mass violence
15:13:45 incident, and there's some literature in the trauma field looking at individual sort of community community response and and leaning on the trauma field looking at individual resilience, trajectories, following a potentially traumatic event you see different trajectories, among individuals, we see some folks that
15:14:05 have coined here in this model as resilience that's tend to be able to manage that distress and early on and continue to manage it.
15:14:17 We see some folks that perhaps have a delayed response.
15:14:22 maybe early on, or can can manage that distress. But over time they're distress gets worse.
15:14:28 We have some folks in our recovery coin, direct work, recovery arm that early on.
15:14:34 They're significant to stress, and over time they're able to figure out how to how to recover.
15:14:41 And then we have some folks that really struggle early on, and then continue to struggle throughout So it's important to recognize that not everybody responds the same way, that that many people do recover.
15:14:53 Many people are resilient, but we need to make sure we're tailing services and tailoring our outreach to be able to accommodate all the different potential trajectories.
15:15:03 So the mass violence center has recently been doing a little bit of research in this area and evaluation.
15:15:10 This is just some initial pilot findings from from our current studies.
15:15:15 We're in the process of getting a little bit more in the weeds of analyzing this data in a little bit more complex manner, But we've basically sampled over 2,000 adults in 3 different mass violence, impacted communities that of el paso parkland, and
15:15:31 Pittsburgh, and what we found is that, compared to the national Ptsd Averages, which is around 4.7 El paso the community at large, not just victims, but the community at large we're 5 times higher rates of Ptsd than the national average parkland 4
15:15:52 times higher, in Pittsburgh, 5 times higher.
15:15:56 So kind of really paying attention, and recognizing that mass finance only impacts direct victims, and those family members.
15:16:03 But it can impact communities at large. We also of learning, from some of the information that those and this is kind of a little bit of a busy side, but that social support plays a very critical role in how one adapts, to mass violence not something new from the trauma literature we kind of know that from our trauma, and
15:16:21 victimization, literature, but it it holds true, for mass violence.
15:16:25 Those with high levels of social support is protective. So what was we thinking about?
15:16:30 Is community response needed to improve our social support for those. But we also know that those a prior victimization prior sexual sol or physical assault actually were increased risk of Ptsd and in difficulty, and then the combination, of those low social support and prior victimization were at even greater risk so thinking
15:16:52 about identifying those potential at risk individuals that within your community that you could be outreaching and making sure you're attending to so just wanna highlight.
15:17:04 just a couple of components components that foster resiliency and recovery free to consider.
15:17:08 After a mass violence incident. We're going to hear from some of our other speakers today, and how they've been adapting and in implementing these types of strategies but considering a needs assessment both individual needs of those impacted and community-based needs as I mentioned every community And individuals are unique and so making sure you're doing a good thorough needs
15:17:29 assessment? Of what areas of strength your community has, as well as what area of needs and gaps that need to be filled.
15:17:37 we know that earlier evidence informed early interventions can be potentially helpful.
15:17:41 Shortly after, including psychological first aid skills or psychological recovery.
15:17:46 We know I just mentioned. Support and connection is really important. Education about trauma response, and about how to manage trauma.
15:17:54 Confused, can be helpful, so we can validate these very natural responses that occur after, you know, an unnatural event.
15:18:03 Well, being strategies may be helpful to kind of round out your resiliency approaches victim.
15:18:08 Abbasy, advocacy, navigation, super important and community outreach and engagement is essential because folks on often gotta come to you, you need to figure out how to engage your community members, especially your marginalized groups and populations in your community making sure you're interacting and establishing
15:18:27 relationships sooner rather than later, helping with remembrance and memorial events, evidence-based trauma, grief, treatments, and then making sure you're part of your wraparound services.
15:18:38 Is helping your helpers. So, addressing compassion, fatigue, and vicarious trauma of your responders.
15:19:03 Thank you, Alyssa. Good afternoon, My name is Tanil Perra.
15:19:13 Hello! Oh, Hello! Everyone! My name is Jesse Adyes, and I am the director for the OS.
15:19:07 I'm the director of the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center and Jesse go ahead
15:19:24 Next slide. So it's really important to note that resiliency centers are not.
15:19:31 One size fits All there's, you know, 2 really big factors that come into play here, and that is going to be the inside as well as the community.
15:19:42 So the the type of instant incident is really gonna impact.
15:19:47 What the needs are, and how you're going to kind of fashion your resiliency center.
15:19:53 So you're going to look at the victimized population, the size of the population, and and the impact of community.
15:20:04 The location, the the method. So you know how you respond to a shooting, you know, may be different than how you respond to a stabbing, because the needs of the individuals could be different.
15:20:17 And then the response, so that immediate response that the community had.
15:20:22 we'll also impact. How a resiliency center gets structured.
15:20:29 And then the community specific. I can't stress this one enough.
15:19:21 Which is the Orlando United Residency Services
15:20:33 It's every community is so different. The resources that are currently available, the different victim services as well as you know, the the types of hospitals, you know, if you have a rural community versus a very urban community it's gonna look different the dynamics within the community and how the organizations work
15:20:58 together available funding sources. You know, money is always going to be a factor when you look at how to structure these services as well as your local government.
15:21:12 All of these are gonna impact. You know, who owns the project?
15:21:15 Who is part of that project, and what is available to provide in regards to the needs which is really usually incident specific.
15:21:25 So, but some general best practices really have been emerging, and some of those is, you really want to invite your key stakeholders, or community problem solvers to the table.
15:21:41 you know here in Las Vegas. What happened was our first responder set up a family assistance center, and they looked out in the community.
15:21:53 And they said, Okay, here are kind of our community stakeholders or problem solvers, And here are the needs that we have.
15:22:01 And they started making phone calls and saying, You know, I think your organization could provide hotel rooms for the families, and I think your organization could provide legal services or your organization could come in and help with the lost identification cards, so all these different pieces, and they pulled us all to the table
15:22:25 and we all kind of problem solved for any pieces that we're missing, or how we could kind of make this work moving forward once that family assistance center closed and we had to transition to a va resiliency center and then very important.
15:22:45 you know, identifying the resources and the under representative or vulnerable populations, So we had a couple vulnerable populations here, in Las Vegas One was we had a large spanish-speaking population, that was providing services at the Venue and a number of
15:23:04 them? Were not documented, and so we had to make sure that we built into our resiliency center the ability to reach them and provide the services that they would need, because some of the community resources would not be available to them so just some of those things to kind of think about and you always want to keep the
15:23:25 entire impact of community in mind. Because, you know, with general victimization, not mass violence, victimization.
15:23:33 You really are looking at A, you know, a small nucleus of impact, which is generally the family and close friends of the individual that's victimized.
15:23:42 But when you're looking at a mass violence incident, your entire community is going to fill some level of trauma based on that incident, so you always want to make sure you keep that entire impact of community in.
15:23:59 Mind next slide. So these are some pictures of the Vegas.
15:24:02 Strong resiliency center. We were established to address the long-term recovery needs of those impacted by one October and essentially I provide these pictures just to show how you know every detailed of our center has taken the impact a community and the resources in mind.
15:24:24 Even, you know, down to our our sensory or yoga room.
15:24:29 So next slide we are a multi-agency collaborative structure.
15:24:34 So this is what works best for our community. We are managed and operated by legal aid center of Southern Nevada.
15:24:44 the legal aid was part of the family assistance center, and one of those problems solvers that was at the table when we were establishing what the Resiliency center would look like, and part of the physical location.
15:25:00 We have people here from Clark County, so we have a social worker who is now ingrained into our emergency management operations.
15:25:10 as well as our social services. We have someone from our police force from Las Vegas, Metro Police department, a victim advocate, so that we're connected to that side and then we're also connected to our State organization that provides a number of behavioral health
15:25:36 professionals to help us with the programming on that side.
15:25:40 And we also do work with our victims of crime program right here in our offices.
15:25:47 They are here also, and then we have a number of other mental help providers throughout our community that provide direct services at their location, and we work with them.
15:25:59 We consult with them, but they don't provide actual direct services here at our location next slide, so our goals are really community resilience and victim assistance, and so we work.
15:26:15 To foster healing and community resilience.
15:26:25 Through a number of different ways. So outreach is been really really important in our resiliency center there were 22,000 tick-up holders at the root, 91 harvest festival.
15:26:36 When the incident happened, and they are from all over the world.
15:26:42 So we have had to work very hard at our outreach.
15:26:50 we do media, we do direct mass melings, emailings.
15:26:57 we do a lot of Silicon Valley. We've really worked hard to connect with them.
15:27:05 However we can, and wherever they are but our outreach isn't just to the individuals that were here at the concert, but also our community as a whole, and we also use outreach to raise awareness for the issues that impact our survivors, and our brief families but also raise
15:27:29 awareness with our general impacted community on some of those things that a Lotta was talking about.
15:27:35 So on our cycle. Education piece, you know, letting people know.
15:27:38 Hey? Here are some things to expect around this time, So every year, on the annual remembrance, events and occasions, you know, we'll do some outreach and we'll do some press to make sure that people understand what they can expect and also what they can expect in their loved ones, if they were
15:27:58 directly impacted. And so we do a lot of outreach It's such an important piece, I will.
15:28:06 I remember when I first started this work, one of the things that I was told was, Don't ever?
15:28:13 I think that because people aren't calling your phone or walking through your door, that they don't need help, and I have found this to be so incredibly true.
15:28:23 we do a lot of one on one individual outreach to our survivors and our brief families, and that is generally where we discover the needs that are there discovered that they really are in a place where they need some assistance so super important to do outreach and then some of our services and
15:28:41 resources are navigation and case management. People when they're dealing with trauma.
15:28:48 You know this is probably good to be the hardest time of their life, and we don't want to leave them out there floundering on their own and to navigate what can often be a very daunting system of victim services and so meeting them where they are and doing that
15:29:07 alongside of them we find it very helpful, and then we also find some, you know, get to a point where they are empowered by doing some of that on, their own, and so we just are kind of that to support them along that way mental and behavioral health services are very important
15:29:29 That's our our greatest request is for mental and behavioral health, and what we do here at our resiliency center is, we do behavioral help navigation.
15:29:38 So we work with them, one on one. We look at. What are your resources?
15:29:43 What do you have available to you? And then we go within their community.
15:29:49 Because again we have people all over the world, and we find a resource or provider that fits that need.
15:29:56 and then if you know that doesn't work out for them, then we will look for another one, and then judicial process support.
15:30:04 So we had a number of lawsuits that came up with.
15:30:07 We didn't get involved in any of the lawsuits that were suing the the hotel, or or or going after anyone, but we were there to at least answer questions and kind of let them know how that could impact things.
15:30:24 So they had a, you know, attorneys at their fingertips that can really give them honest and truthful information, because there's always a lot of misinformation out there as we know, with social media you know, and that information, could get out there and it can just kind of run the
15:30:41 gamut so always helpful, and then legal services. So we provide them a breadth of civil legal services, so foreclosure, eviction, debt, collection, a whole number of things we've helped them with, and we've been able to provide those free of service and then emotional support
15:31:01 sometimes they just need a place to call and and say, Hey, this is how I'm filling today, and I I don't need anything.
15:31:09 I just wanted to know that someone's on the other end of this phone and and can talk me, you know.
15:31:14 Just talk to me for a minute, So, just being there sometimes is the biggest thing that you can do next slide
15:31:25 programming and events, as well as education. So we'll do We call them outreach sessions, so we'll do a little, you know, information session on different types of therapy.
15:31:36 Or we'll do a quick little meditation, or try yoga to, you know.
15:31:42 Kind of break down barriers to getting services, breakdown barriers to different mental health services, and then a responder wellness.
15:31:53 So this is really your you know, your first responder, but as well as your long-term responders, some of those mental health providers that have been doing the services for years, your own staff at the resiliency center so making sure that their wellness is always taken care of as well and
15:32:10 then remembrance services. So you'll have the different memorial services that happen right after the incident.
15:32:17 And here there to kind of just provide support or direction or guidance.
15:32:21 maybe work with your Corners office to provide information and be that contact different memorial sites will get set up, and then you'll have, you know, sometimes permanent memorials that will be built kind of being the voice of the impact a community, with that and then your annual
15:32:40 remembrance. So every year, when that time of year starts to come around, you'll see that you know the the filling is can come back up.
15:32:50 There's a lot of emotions and different things that come with that time of the year.
15:32:55 So you want to provide additional support. But you're always gonna want to make sure that you provide some type of annual remembrance, or at least support the survivors and families and The way.
15:33:07 That they want to remember that day, and that is always a very, very busy time of year here for us.
15:33:15 But it's a a time of year that we're really able to connect with the impact of community.
15:33:21 Really look and analyze. Where are we? What are the outstanding needs that we haven't met?
15:33:28 What are the the little pockets within our impact? A community that we haven't been able to reach quite as well.
15:33:36 And then we kind of design programming around that to meet those needs and and reach those people, so gives them a great opportunity to connect, and also raise awareness in our community, and then advocacy so we've provided a lot of advocacy, throughout our community different community partners.
15:33:57 So. For example, sometimes language will be used by, you know. Maybe it's it's our police force, or maybe it's you know, another community leader.
15:34:06 They will use some terminology, or some language that you know really impacts.
15:34:12 Our survivors are families in a negative way, and they will generally let us know that they're, you know, generally very verbal, and then we can work with those community figures and say, Hey, this you know is the way that They really like that referred.
15:34:27 To Or could you use this language? It really is more trauma informed, and generally, you know, those figures are very grateful for that information.
15:34:36 So we've really been able to educate our community on that and make our system more trauma informed.
15:34:46 So one of the things, too, I wanted to kind of touch on a little bit here today is, you know, when you have a regular victimization where it's just one person that kind of impacts that family or those close.
15:35:02 Friends, you know there's not always a lot of coverage on that, and while it's sad, it's not likely to really change your system.
15:35:13 Mass violence is, you know, so you know, so horrific that it impacts the entire community, and you know, it does bring about you.
15:35:25 Know, I hate to call it an opportunity, because that's that's a positive term, but it does bring about an opportunity to look at your community and look at the way that your victim services are and the way things are structured.
15:35:43 And say, Can we use this to change things, you know, to move things forward in our victim?
15:35:50 Services, you know, overall, and you know I I do feel that well, you know, regular victimization really doesn't move that needle much, if at all.
15:36:03 When you have a mass incident like this, it it gives.
15:36:06 You know, that's really that opportunity to kind of dig in there and look at ways that you can change the system for better and moving forward.
15:36:17 And so we really have worked hard to do that here in Las Vegas, and in Nevada.
15:36:24 and then you, you know, looking at if this, were to happen again, are we in a better place today than we were when this event happened?
15:36:36 And that really takes us, you know, to kind of our sustainability.
15:36:40 And I'll just touch base a little bit on what our sustainability has looked at like, and what the planning is for that, so then I can turn it over to Jesse cause he's also gonna talk about, that piece but here we've been able to and give me, 1 s I
15:36:59 just wanna make sure that I'm not taking his time here.
15:37:04 We've been able to from the beginning design our resiliency center, so that we have sustainability built in.
15:37:14 So we've really worked to integrate with our emergency management team here locally as well as the State.
15:37:21 So we are ingrained in it, and we work with them on their plans.
15:37:28 So any planning for a response. They have us at the table to say, Here is, you know, hey?
15:37:36 Because they'll do things sometimes, and they're not trauma, informed, and they're really not victim centered.
15:37:41 And so we're able to be at the table to inform that.
15:37:44 But we're also now providing services on another kind of branch through different funding.
15:37:53 To all victims of violent crime. So we're providing services to all victims of violent crime, that kind of mirror, What we've learned, and what we've done here so that we will be an ongoing entity.
15:38:08 In case this does come up again, and you know there's a lot of different pieces that go into that as far as funding and different community partners and things like that.
15:38:18 but I'll leave it there, so that I give Jesse plenty of time to cover his alright.
15:38:26 thank you, Daniel. I know it's Inal, and I have spoken a lot over the last couple of months, and it's you know.
15:38:37 There, There are a lot of parallels between what the Resilience center in Vegas has gone through, and what our or or howers in our resilience C program here in Orlando have gone through.
15:38:49 And it's always very interesting to kind of compare and contrast as we, you know, as as time goes forward, and it it really does come down to a lot of you know, revisiting and looking back, and saying, and you know what worked and what didn't work and really viewing those opportunities
15:39:11 for growth, So as we were creating this, where is is we were putting this together.
15:39:20 There are definitely a lot of parallels, and there were some unique things, And so I'm really gonna touch on some of the for us, at least, for here for the pulse community and the Orlando, community, As a whole, some of the things that we've learned and I think some of the things that
15:39:34 throughout the years have been the common theme. When serving our community, and when serving our survivors, And so I really want to be able to put that into perspective and so so pulse tragedy happened on June twelfth 2,016 we lost 49 angels and after that
15:39:56 when the ouac we are called today the Urs.
15:40:01 But about in 2,016. Several months after the tragedy happened, our program is actually called Ouac, and we've since rebranded since June.
15:40:11 officially July of this year. So when we really talk about like, what are some of the needs that we've seen throughout the years, what our pulse community has really asked for, I would like to preface that.
15:40:28 By the importance of trauma, informed care, approach, and the importance to being trauma informed really lies in always having at the back of our minds, or as our base our baseline is, that anyone who comes in through our doors has a potential to be retraumatized
15:40:48 by a process or a program, or an organization that doesn't take into account.
15:40:57 someone's story or someone's background, or someone's mental health when they walk in through our doors.
15:41:02 And so one of the biggest things that we have seen through our community needs with the pulse community has been mental health.
15:41:12 mental health has been supremely important, even when some survivors weren't even ready for mental health.
15:41:20 In the very beginning, and just being cognizant, and having that, you know, sense of awareness.
15:41:25 That you know they've just experienced a highly traumatic event, and they're just not ready for that.
15:41:31 They you know it. It It's very scary. And so for us learning to have the therapists who are Lgbtq affirming, was the start, having therapist who could understand what?
15:41:49 Someone from the gate community, or could empathize with them, or could speak to them.
15:41:53 So that was always something that we kept in the back of our minds, and really labeling our message.
15:41:58 Okay, you know. Have you seen a counselor? I And and maybe perhaps that's something that it seems like a far-fetched idea to some of our survivors at the time, and we've had survivors come forward 6 years after the event and they have never received.
15:42:15 Services they always felt that survivor's guilt right, that this this space could belong to someone else.
15:42:20 But the conversation was always No, you, this is this is meant for you, and so some of our things that we have done throughout the years, And I think that we've what we've learned, or at least our opinion is the importance of having a therapist on site someone who's very much
15:42:36 of part of the team, and I'll talk a little bit about what we did in the beginning, which was the no wrong door policy.
15:42:46 And so we had mental health providers that were off-site.
15:42:51 And so today, when we look back we wish we would have had a therapist who is onsite 5 days a week, or even 6 days a week, or at least on a week on a weekend to be there for our survivors because I think it would have been extremely important some of the things.
15:43:06 that the center today does from those lessons is, we do have for a Everyone in the community has 4 free sessions of mental health counseling by therapists who are Lgbtq affirming pull survivors have also received counting sessions at no cost to
15:43:26 them and the sessions are unlimited. We've also opened up the space for gun survivor groups and and trump and coping, as well as creating Lgbtq safe.
15:43:37 Spaces, some of the things that we have are things like financial support and advocacy funds.
15:43:42 But since the start of the program those have gone down a little bit, and it's been a struggle to try to help out our survivors with things like how or just financial support immigration has also been a big one.
15:43:55 I know, it's a Neil Talk talked about certain.
15:44:00 The undocumented population. But for us it's been something that we have also struggled with, and there's a lot of limited resources.
15:44:08 Next slide, please. So I'm gonna breeze through it.
15:44:12 so for us the in the very beginning, the office of victims of crime provided technical assistance in creating the to to the Orlando community as a whole.
15:44:21 so the city, Orlando, Orange County, and hardware united way under the aap grant.
15:44:27 The Anti-terrorism and emergency assistance program.
15:44:29 Grant, we were able to create. Oac. We serve some of our primary impact.
15:44:35 There impacted groups which were the survivors and families of the 49.
15:44:39 If we ever needed we would event if we needed to bet some of the survivors, we would have a point of contact with the FBI under that.
15:44:49 Later on we've We've found out, obviously, that with the LGBT community the importance of chosen families plays a huge role, and understanding that a lot of these biological families or blood, you know people who are blood related to them aren't always necessarily have been there for for some of
15:45:05 the survivors. And so sometimes you'll notice that they will have team points of chosen families, people who have giving them a roof over the head and there there's no relation there whatsoever.
15:45:17 so the no wrong door policy in the very beginning was that the idea was that anyone can come through our doors, and as case managers, victim advocates, we would be able to connect them to whatever community.
15:45:29 Resource was out there in the community. So let me next slide
15:45:37 some of our ongoing sustainability efforts is in the very beginning.
15:45:42 We had Ouac. We had funding from the ap Grant surge, grant, and then through Orlando City, and heart of Florida united way which we were a part of, and then Orange County and Osceola, county I think one of the lessons here learned.
15:45:59 is, we became a program for the central Orlando, as of January 2021, and we have now been a part of a much bigger organization, and so our ongoing efforts are sometimes June twelfth, coincides, with pride month, and So sometimes those funding
15:46:18 efforts coincide with pride. Month as well cause there's a big community togetherness, you know.
15:46:24 Come together and it's it's a bittersweet moment, because it's it's where you know pride happens, but at the same time it's also a hurtful time.
15:46:32 With June twelfth. So our own going whenever we do get funding, is also taken out from the operational funds that's under the center So next slide.
15:46:43 And I'm trying to be mindful of time. So
15:46:45 So finally, so of the things that we've learned, or what we our philosophy has, you know, we really believe in the establishment of more permanent resilience centers across the nation, programs like, hours, right So like.
15:47:04 Hours, or or unfortunately, something like you know, the resiliency of the baker strong, and I hate to say that, but there's something that's going on in our country at this present time, and it's very unfortunate.
15:47:15 To to have to wait until something horrific or tragedy or mass shooting happens before we establish resilency centers or have programs.
15:47:25 Like these that are trauma informed, or Trevor recovery, trauma, recovery centers, And so some of our philosophy is to have those established already, and not go through the headache of trying to figure it out to create things from scratch and you know, have have people really
15:47:44 deal through a lot more pain and suffering longer than they should have.
15:47:50 so we believe that resency centers are great.
15:47:55 We also have worked with inv victim services, centers as well, and domestic violence shelters.
15:47:59 However, there is a little bit of the difference for us, simply because sometimes we feel that human trafficking, trafficking survivors or gun violence Survivors Lgbtq or other pay crime survivors.
15:48:10 Are victims. It's you know. The question is, where where do they go?
15:48:14 If they can't be serviced by victim service centers.
15:48:15 So I think that recently C centers are more permanent ones, can fill in those gaps, especially for people that perhaps don't fall in those criteria for for those type of service sensors.
15:48:27 And so that would be my our call to action. And I think I'm at time so
15:48:39 great. Now we're gonna hear from Maggie Feinstein.
15:48:47 Thank you, Alyssa, and thank you to Jesse and Tanil.
15:48:52 I am the director like Alyssa said, of the 1027 healing partnership and 1027, is in reference.
15:49:01 October 20 seventh, 2,018, and our organization was started about 6 months after the shooting, and I you know that part of the questions that i'll be addressing today, is a little bit of how how we get started, and and what are some of what does the work, look like
15:49:17 but, generally speaking, organization is similar to timeline Jesse.
15:49:21 We serve the direct victims of the event, and then we also serve those who feel the effects of such a violating event, and people who've experienced anti-semitic trauma or traumatic grief How we help through counseling being a gathering space.
15:49:35 commemorating the you know the the same way that for Vegas they call it remembrance.
15:49:40 That's you know, a term that we have to use is commemorating, and we share best practices, And the picture here you see sort of one of the pieces when we're talking about resiliency centers, and for the people who i'm, not that one up you know part of what we often
15:49:54 talk about is what Jesse just ended with this. No wrong door concept.
15:49:58 The idea that we do want to make sure that there's as many doors open to people after a mass violence incident and some of those doors may be familiar doors that already existed before.
15:50:08 The event. Sometimes you need to have extra doors, so that people can continue to get services who were not connected before, or who are feeling the impact of the event.
15:50:19 And then the other sort of key, part when we get started, is this question of ripple effects?
15:50:23 We're told that part of our goal with resiliency is, how do we shore up the ground underneath us, And so in this picture, you see, some of our staff and one of the things that that we've faced as a ripple, effect, is just as we were getting started the
15:50:35 pandemic started as well, and so we went from creating a space where people could meet inside.
15:50:42 Just staying as flexible as possible. And this is what we call canopy conversations here.
15:50:46 It was a Covid adaptation. But how do we meet the needs of our community, and also do that safely?
15:50:53 And so you know, just as an example of what our work looks like.
15:50:56 The the in this canopy conversation, you see one of our trauma therapists that's part of our staff, and then we also have financial literacy support.
15:51:04 And that was something that the pandemic we figured, you know.
15:51:07 Take it outside. Make sure that we are available and accessible.
15:51:10 You know the next slide one of the big parts that we do in the sort of long term community resiliency is.
15:51:19 We talk a lot about what is trauma right? And that is an important component that one of the things that that you have to sort of start with is this concept that the community doesn't always know what is trauma What is communal, trauma And So this is just an example you.
15:51:34 Know, but one of the the work that we do is often going around and educating, sharing best practices, really being able to contribute to our local community's capacity to support people So you know, when we do this, talk often I talk about how trauma is a given human condition, especially after a
15:51:51 mass violence, incident. People will say, Oh, it's so sad!
15:51:53 What happened to those people, and so we always say what happened to all of us right that that that may not be the trauma that impacted me, but that on the other hand, I can relate to people on the component of trauma being a human condition that together, we can heal from and that it is better off
15:52:09 when we do that together, but really important is often educating people.
15:52:13 That incident can be traumatic because it disrupts our sense of self and safety So that's a perception that is individual respecting that, and making sure that our services allow people to define for themselves what's traumatic more so than us defining it for them.
15:52:30 we really Take into account the primary secondary, vicarious trauma, and especially with the mass violence incident.
15:52:35 It is so important to understand the differences between the primary problem experience by direct victims.
15:52:42 The secondary trauma that can be experienced by people who are very close by, and then the vicarious trauma that can be experienced by people who who relate to the event, and feel as though they could have been there so go to the next slide, I think it's really
15:52:58 important to know that when we're talking about trauma, and we're talking about a community trauma, that trauma is not something that exists in a vacuum.
15:53:06 It's not one incident, and you know people will say all the time, I'm really feeling awful.
15:53:12 I don't know why I don't think it's about 1027, and I would say, you know that we don't have to always know exactly what is causing us to feel a certain type of way, but being able to notice it's the most important part with collective
15:53:24 trauma. It's really important that we sort of realize that we exist again not in a vacuum.
15:53:30 We exist in relationship to a lot of the people around us.
15:53:33 So when there's a traumatic event that can shatter sort of the community norms, the experiences of safety, the ways in which we engage with each other, that it's really important to acknowledge it.
15:53:47 We do a lot of talking about that in terms of the organizations that existed before, and that were first responders in the event, and that How How has that response really impacted their organizations group norms if you think of water cooler conversations.
15:54:02 If you think about when people send emails, how they send emails the the urgency, when when organizations were part of the trauma response means that it is sometimes that that what was before a given doesn't become a given anymore.
15:54:20 We have sort of shadow that that norming, and we are recreating it as we go, and I think that one of the really important parts is that what Alyssa showed us in that early season about about disaster and disaster recovery is that the communal aspect means that people are
15:54:36 experiencing the impact and loss at the same time. So if you think about those 2 slides that Elissa was showing us at the beginning that we're experiencing it at the same time.
15:54:45 We're experiencing it entirely differently. So same event, different response from the people around us, and one of the things that's really challenging with that is that we you know, if you look at that image that I have there of the umbrellas that what happens if somebody starts swinging that
15:54:59 umbrella around, or just behaving sort of in an unpredictable way, with their umbrella.
15:55:04 We expect for people to kind of keep it, uniform and be aware of where their body is and what's going on for them so that we can kind of move around that.
15:55:13 But when there's collective trauma, what sometimes happen is that it's hard to see each other.
15:55:18 It's hard to see each other for each other's experience, and so my pain starts to impact somebody else's, and it results in sort of mixed empathy we're not always showing, up for each other in the way as a community, that we would like to and you know what what I wish somebody had told us
15:55:34 when we were getting started, As I know, that's part of what the the the topic is today is. I wish people had told us that that's normal.
15:55:42 and that that's okay, and that if we can anticipate that that there's a lot we can do to also support our community through that.
15:55:49 but you know the everything, from being in the grocery store, the for around the first anniversary to actually planning the first, the first commemoration in the first anniversary events.
15:55:59 It was a time where everyone's everyone was so heightened and experiencing their own anniversary effect at the exact same time, and that just contributes to, you know, not being able to be as present for each other as we wish we could be you can go to the next, so you know what
15:56:18 the the resiliency center job. How can we as resiliency centers, help build capacity for communities to be more resilient?
15:56:25 And part of it is acknowledging trauma, understanding the individual factors.
15:56:31 Daniel talked about that right that there's no there's no situation that's exactly the same for any of us, because our communities are different.
15:56:38 The victims were different, the intent was different. There are those some similarities.
15:56:43 and so one of the similarities is that we know that that trauma impacted people directly it made it.
15:56:50 It took loved ones from from families. It also, you know. Unfortunately, the people who witnessed an experience, and then the first responders who responded that there's a similarity in the fact that that is one of the byproducts of these events of mass violence in our communities and it's easier for
15:57:05 us, to identify the primary trauma that people have experienced.
15:57:11 well, at least in our community. I think you know Daniel described 22,000 ticket holders that that is a lot harder in our community.
15:57:18 3 synagogues, 3 congregations. We're worshipping in one synagogue, and those 3 congregations were very communal.
15:57:26 We knew all the people who would be there, and it was very much easy to identify who the primary trauma victims were.
15:57:33 But it's really hard to find the secondary and vicarious problem of victims, and that heat motivated mode mass, violence, incidents really deep in the experience of secondary and vicarious trauma, largely, because we know who the people who are attacking us what their
15:57:50 what their motives are. And so, for a lot of the people who who identify in that group, it can really feel like the trauma was so much closer Our Our vicarious experience is is so much closer and so you know what do we do about that it's it's one of the big
15:58:07 challenges and starting a resiliency center and doing that effectively.
15:58:12 We want to challenge your challenge to provide that psycho education regarding trauma to the people.
15:58:16 We can identify those organizations that responded, or the people we know.
15:58:20 But really also to to as one of our community members said, You got a shout from the roof pops shell from the rooftops that it's okay to not be okay.
15:58:28 Shout from the rooftops that we are all going to heal better together, and shout from the rooftops that there's another door that people can walk through if they don't have one that's already, working for them so you know that is really what we've tried.
15:58:42 To do. We do that in using media, And that's I know a question that somebody had for for us to cover today.
15:58:49 But I'll jump into it really quickly. Here, just that we wanna make sure that we use our newspaper outlets, our our television outlets with creative ways of using OP-eds earned media advertising and local papers, that that shares that message it's okay, to not be okay, we
15:59:05 are here, and that people heal together. We use social media in that way.
15:59:10 Social media works better for the people who are already following us.
15:59:12 It's not really, you know, a great way to find new people, but it is a good way to reach people who who look for our organization, and then we find opportunities to get in front of diverse people.
15:59:25 that that could have been impacted. And I think all of us have touched on this Alyssa mentioned it, and I know Tina and Jessie did, too, but that that we can't wait for people to call us.
15:59:35 Or come in, we have to find creative ways that might mean, you know, getting into the schools to do a talk on something that's that's adjacent, but not direct.
15:59:42 About 1027. It may mean, you know, showing up at synagogue events, and being able to participate in them openly and and and being sort of there to engage with, them but we have to find opportunities to spread the word that we exist, to spread, the word that it's okay, to
15:59:59 not be okay. And to do that as effectively as we can.
16:00:01 As early as we can, and keep going. The one of that communal trauma, you know, impacts is that that we have to notice that the community has different sort of stages of of adapting to it and so back to alyssa slide where we saw you know some people will you know.
16:00:22 be okay, I'll be okay. And then hit a period where everything gets really hard and they have to go through their grief, or they have to, You know, work on their coping skills some people do that early.
16:00:31 Some people never do it. It's it's a little bit of a all over the map.
16:00:37 But what happens is that what we've we've we've learned, and what I've heard from other resiliency centers is you?
16:00:43 Have a lot of people who say, Oh, we have to keep talking about this, Can't we?
16:00:46 Just can. We just move forward? I don't want to keep talking about this.
16:00:49 Can't we go back to who we were before, and that that that creates a little bit of attention that I think can be okay as long as people know it's natural and part of it is because in the short term we have to sort of stay in our crisis, response, right that's sort of
16:01:07 physical posturing, almost for responding to that crisis. But then, in the long term, we can't operate like that, because it doesn't give people a sense of safety or security.
16:01:17 And So we we really want with communal trauma to acknowledge that that tension is normal, that different grief reactions are okay, and that sometimes when people say you know how's your community doing that's always a hard question that I get a lot, of the time, and when the how's your community
16:01:35 doing question means that we actually sometimes have to help educate people.
16:01:38 That are community is not sort of one feeling and that there's diverse feelings and that they're all totally healthy and normal, and not right or wrong, and that that when there's trauma queues from new mass violence, incidents that that those ripple effects really can bring
16:01:52 those grief reactions back, different incidents, You know, one of the things I've learned unfortunately over this last year is we've seen so many more people joining our community is that different incidents impact different people and so when you know when there's another shooting some people in our community.
16:02:07 Are really really shaken by one incident, some by others.
16:02:10 And so we we respond sort of individually, with that to the community.
16:02:15 My last sort of piece that I just wanna cover, because unfortunately, we are.
16:02:19 Now, you know, we're not the only mass violence incident that was from a hate, motivated crime, like Jesse mentioned earlier, that office of victims of crime really provide us a ton of support, needs, assessment and We have benefited from the anti-terrorism emergency assistance program grant the
16:02:34 aap grant that other some other resiliency centers have benefited, from which is wonderful, because it gave us a lot more flexibility, and and how we are responding to the community But the grant also attaches a definition by who is victimized And so back to what I was saying a
16:02:49 little bit before that hate Motivated events increased. The secondary and vicarious trauma survivors that one of the challenges, and for anybody who's joining or who's planning for their communities acknowledging that with hate motivated crimes it is really
16:03:03 important to supplement the aap funding because one of the things that early on you want to make sure you're attending to the direct victims you want.
16:03:12 To really make sure that you've done whatever's needed to give them the resources they need, and to build build some sort of relationship there, and to be able to acknowledge those who on the broader spectrum have been impacted, by the vicarious and secondary trauma of the
16:03:28 event, and that wasn't. That's not really supported in the aap funding.
16:03:32 But it can be something that if you early on supplement that you can make sure your communications can match, that you can make sure that your programming can match that.
16:03:41 And knowing that that is also something that is just a challenge.
16:03:44 And you know the picture that sort of goes with. This is sometimes people feel like they are on the outside looking in, and that that we try our best to manage that but it it can be a big challenge so I think that's all I have for right now and I know I was trying to keep up with
16:03:59 my time.
16:04:03 great. Thank you, Maggie. Appreciate it. So I'm gonna talk just really, briefly, before we go into some Q.
16:04:11 A with our panelists here. I want to talk a little bit about some lessons learned that we've been hearing from our Resiliency Center directors and administrative.
16:04:21 Forms that we have been working with So, beginning in 2,017, the national Mass Violence Center has been providing some consultation to resiliency centers where, initially, we're starting one-on-one consultation in the past several years We facilitated and started up a
16:04:35 Resiliency Center Director's forum as well as the Residency Center administrators forum both to kind of provide opportunities to exchange.
16:04:42 Ideas, problem, solve talk about how we can improve services and long-term sustainability.
16:04:47 Unfortunately, now in our country we have. We have too too many resiliency centers that exist.
16:04:54 Now that we have enough to be able to form to formalize this form together, as well as to kind of address a little bit of what Magma said.
16:05:02 What I wish I had known when I was just starting out.
16:05:04 And so when we've been meeting for a number of months, supporting each other, and then from those forms and meetings we've begun to develop a promising practices for mass mass violence, resiliency centers based on a lot of the work from our directors and our program managers in
16:05:21 our and our resignation centers and administrators.
16:05:25 So this is kind of their work. So I'm gonna just highlight a couple of points that kinda capitalize a little bit on what Jesse Maggie and Daniel. I've Already kind of talked about.
16:05:31 But coming out of this form, some the factors of success have come around collaboration and partnership structure of the resignation center potential funding ideas for future funding, making sure you're providing comprehensive victim services and community and public awareness strategies has it raised to community
16:05:49 community collaboration and partnership definitely need a build on pre existing relationships.
16:05:54 So, as Jesse mentioned, when a mass balance incident occurs right now, there isn't a in most places there isn't an actually existing resiliency center.
16:06:00 And so how do you build something that didn't exist to start with, and so kind of you got to build?
16:06:06 Start with what relationships you already have identify, what strengths or community has identify key players who have certain specialty skills to help.
16:06:16 perhaps a list support elicit support from leaders at the Federal State, and local levels identify what your gaps are as you're collaborating, and then engage the community and collaborative decision making in trying to figure out how to build your resiliency center and then as you're going on
16:06:32 you're gonna develop some very specific job job descriptions for each individual as far as the structural resiliency Center.
16:06:41 there are some guidelines or some more information on the ovc toolkit, mass violence.
16:06:45 Toolkit on line for you as well. I just want to hit a couple of things that have come up through our forums, so sharing the aap grant where the resiliency center leadership is really important so often as Maggie alluded to there is a grant that gets written and
16:07:00 then often when the resolution center is established, Residency Director is hired at that point and so that individual wasn't necessarily part of the planning phases and developing that, grant and so making sure that all all relevant partners are aware of kind of what the scope of work
16:07:18 that that indicated, and how one should build your resignency center.
16:07:22 I think there was a question that I was asked that how long does it take to get a resiliency center started up, and it really depends on the community.
16:07:30 Sometimes they see around usually around 6 months afterwards, but sometimes to have a brick and mortar building that might take time to find a location to identify your your natural landing spot, if you will and that sometimes, can take up to a year you don't want to necessarily you want to be able to provide resources.
16:07:49 That doesn't mean that you don't hold off on providing resources in your community.
16:07:52 But to really establish a center, you need to take time to really be mindful of who's going to be steering that center?
16:07:58 How is it going to be set up? Where is it going to reside and live?
16:08:00 And you want to make sure you select a sponsoring agency that has a history of fundraising to administer that Grant as well as to be able to administer other funds and to have the organizational structure to be able to guide that where that center may live center directors
16:08:14 as I mentioned, usually get hired on in the connect, very different backgrounds, and have different skill sets, which is great.
16:08:19 So there's not one size fits all, So you want to build on those variety of experiences It could be a mental health spectrum victim, service, background, legal background, nonprofit background.
16:08:31 In general. You wanna also make sure you wanna be thinking about sustainability from the beginning, because ap funding is limited.
16:08:41 It's it is fantastic to get things off the ground and we be able to provide really essential resources.
16:08:45 But it doesn't go on forever. And so thinking about what are the needs of your population?
16:08:51 That might be 4, 5, 6 years down the road, as Jesse kind of mentioned that some folks didn't walk in the door until 6 years down the road, so in order to do that, thinking about Sustainability you need a clear mission envision strategic plan perhaps even connecting to grant rioters
16:09:05 earlier, you know. Develop your long-range plan whether that's gonna remain within that specific victim population, or whether you're going to expand it after the initial grant end.
16:09:16 So just some food for thought, for people to think about. As I mentioned You think about other resources of funding, not only in kind of your aap, grant, but, you know, are there other creative ways either in your state or in your community that you can access, other types of ways, to fund specific aspects, accounting county housing authority
16:09:33 State voca Funding other State sources, county tours and taxes are just examples of ways that some resiliency centers have been creative anyone to also be mindful and thinking about lessons aren't from victim services You need to make sure you're you're leaning on what are the
16:09:51 long-term needs of your survivors in your community that this is based on maybe whatever program evaluation research we're doing and gathering some survivors.
16:09:58 Lived experience to kind of help. With that you want to identify and document everything from the very early on that's going to help you with future funding, and it's going to help you figure out your gaps and challenges you want to identify whether your center is going to be a behavioral mental health agency.
16:10:11 or victim service agency or hybrid, that that kind of incorporates both disciplines.
16:10:16 And so there is not one size fits all. It could exist within an existing victim.
16:10:20 Service center Or maybe it's not. Maybe it's something that lives under a different type of umbrella.
16:10:28 Also just wanna highlight. We we do offer some, you know.
16:10:33 You wanna the role of a victim. Service navigator is essential.
16:10:36 it's it's somebody that kind of really connects people to the resources and knows the resources in your community.
16:10:43 We do have a position description, And on our website for that type of individual, what all the different potential job to use that that individual may be doing.
16:10:51 And then we want to talk about as as Maggie mentioned, engaging public relations, figuring out ways to proactive, engaging the media in different ways, both to get psycho education out and information about the resources that you have so having a strong social media presence, maybe engaging public relations for as sort, of pro bono
16:11:10 to help out. So it kind of determining a messaging strategy is really important.
16:11:14 So wanna highlight a couple of other resources that are available.
16:11:17 We have a number of different resources on our website. There are a number of different tip sheets that are geared for victims and survivors and victim service professionals and their health professionals and community leaders if we if there's, a what if we're not here, to reinvent the wheel we also
16:11:31 have a number of tip sheets on our website that other folks in the field have put together.
16:11:36 Do you see other good information out there? Let us know if you see something that's not there.
16:11:41 Let us know, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and we have a wonderful pad podcast series, and then also just wanna highlight that we have developed a self help app for for community members and victims and survivors.
16:11:52 After mass violence called Transcend Nmv seats, a free self-help app that provides some resiliency strategies, before we jump into our Q. A.
16:12:03 I just wanna highlight the couple upcoming relevant conferences So there is a leave, no victim behind.
16:12:07 Conference that is occurring in San Marcus in about 2 weeks.
16:12:11 there is also the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in November, which provides a lot of the latest research in the trauma field, and then the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive therapies this year is highlighting the main focus is on emergency and
16:12:26 disaster, preparedness, response. And so that's specifically for our mental health providers that may be here today.
16:12:33 You can request some consultation from the National Mass Violence Center by just sending us an Eva email.
16:12:41 We will do the best we can to to assist you, or direct you to other folks that can.
16:12:47 So before we kind of go to our app up, we've got a We've got about 10 min or so.
16:12:53 I do have a couple questions that came in from our attendees before during the registration, and we sort of coalesced some questions here.
16:13:03 So I'm going to invite Maggie Jesse, and to Neil back on with us, so that I can ask you all a couple of questions.
16:13:09 If you if you don't mind. Alright. Great! So I I'm gonna actually probably put this out.
16:13:19 To each one of you. What would you say are effective strategies for communicating with survivor?
16:13:28 I'll go first. So we have worked to establish relationships with family members in the Breed family community that I would kind of call ambassadors.
16:13:42 They've kind of rose to the top and taken on a leadership position within the family groups, and so we work with them to kind of gauge how they are doing, you know, as a group, but also kind of propose ideas, or different things to see you know what they think bounce off ideas.
16:14:02 And then we also use them to communicate, because they really walled themselves off the media coverage right after the incident was crazy, and so they kind of pulled away and formed like social media groups and different community groups like that and so we do it.
16:14:22 That way. We also do it one on one. And then we do emails with them.
16:14:28 So also our navigators have personal relationships They've established with a number of the families And so that's how we communicate with them.
16:14:44 yeah, I'll jump in. And sort of echo it, Neil said.
16:14:49 We have a little bit of a different communication strategy, because naturally our our population was just different.
16:14:58 But the similarly for the direct victims that we try to make sure there's one on one communication. We, you know.
16:15:04 We've tried many different things, and it is a big challenge, you know, Early on the question.
16:15:10 You can use the tools that exist for communicating things out, such as slack or other messaging apps.
16:15:18 but that depends on your demographic for ours.
16:15:20 It does not work at all, and people, you know, there's a the big part of this question is that communication matters, totally and that it's almost impossible to get it right.
16:15:30 Until you've gotten it wrong. Is a sort of the piece, I would say so.
16:15:36 So mostly I use emails, direct emails to the families and survivors.
16:15:39 And then we use great newsletter and to echo what Jesse said earlier about wishing that on day one they put the resources into having an in-house clinician on day one I wish we'd put the resources into having better communications internally you.
16:15:54 Know we have an incredible communications, firm, but having the capacity to manage a good newsletter, your social media do all those things are really important because people are looking and that earlier, you Can do that well, the sort of the better you can put them.
16:16:11 yeah. So I know for us. We we've tried different things, you know, different routes like mass email communications posting it on social media.
16:16:21 I know for the Latinx, or predominantly Latino Latina, or Hispanic culture.
16:16:28 you know word of mouth plays a big role to probably getting a friend or someone that they're close to, and saying, Hey, can you talk to such and such and such person and sometimes I think it's that trust or that that they might have versus reading an AD somewhere online and so
16:16:47 just getting someone that they're comfortable with, and as saying, Hey, would you?
16:16:51 Would you mind coming in with them so kind of like a buddy system?
16:16:55 And that's that's been that that's been effective.
16:16:59 And you know. But besides that, yeah, just publishing mass communications, text messaging Whatsapp as been a big one for us, especially for people who, you know our coming from a different country or that's been a huge month.
16:17:18 okay.
16:17:32 yeah, it's a really important question, because I think probably anybody who asked that maybe people who are unfortunately joining us that are newer in this field, that it's really hard because the work demands flexibility.
16:17:43 It's not and really easy work for boundary setting.
16:17:47 And so you know oftentimes we recommend boundary setting for self care. I think that it is really important to be able to acknowledge and name that that vicarious trauma exists for all of us it's not just for the people we serve it's also within the
16:18:02 office. There's and the people around us. I think that really making room for people to create their own plans for what they might need you know again the boundary setting piece it's different for each individual within within teams, we've also partnered.
16:18:18 We've had a really nice partnership that we started early on with a sort of a workplace meditation and mindfulness group called Awaken locally here in Pittsburgh but they have done trainings on on How to bring mindfulness and mindful practices into a
16:18:35 workplace. And so we did that, not just with us, but with our other, Jewish serving organizations that were sort of first responders and tried really hard in that first year to care for the caregivers.
16:18:44 We said, we we found that a lot of the folks who were part of our community who responded were, We're really impacted by the trauma of that.
16:17:18 Thank you. And this one I'm gonna ask, Maggie, what do you recommend in fostering resilience for victim Service providers following a mass violence incident and kind of related. As a care provider how do you take care of yourself
16:19:03 Thank you, and also for reference. Ovc. Does have a vaccines, trauma toolkit.
16:19:10 That also could be a good resource for organizing to kind of better help.
16:19:15 Infuse addressing the needs of vicarious trauma within an or at an organization level.
16:19:20 So I know that's kind of a resource, resource.
16:19:22 Anything, Maggie, that you personally have done to take care of yourself.
16:19:24 yes, you know I really try, and I think of always boundary setting is is it should be based in your values And so.
16:19:34 You know I'm a parent with young kids, and there's lots of times where I can't.
16:19:37 To other things, but getting them off to school in the morning, I try to not schedule things.
16:19:40 I try to make sure. That's my time That's an important thing.
16:19:44 You know, that I've done, and I I I don't think everyone does the same thing, but for me that is the time of day that I've kind of carved out as sacred, and only to be taken, if there.
16:19:53 Is something else that has to happen, and I think everyone needs to define that for themselves.
16:19:59 The only other thing really quickly, and I'll make sure Claudia has the citation.
16:20:03 But we we did have a really wonderful research study conducted of the agencies that responded as first responders. So a lot of our Jewish serving organizations about the traumatic impact on staff and we use that ovc vicarious. Trauma toolkit which so when alyssa
16:20:18 said that it reminded me. And the data really indicated that that a lot of professional staff at organizations that weren't designed to be trauma responders had vicarious trauma, at the same rates as other first responding agencies, police fire ems.
16:20:34 dispatchers, and there's good reason to believe that that is true in in lots of organizations.
16:20:40 And so we've talked to the researchers about how important it is to do the research versus how important it is to to respond early for those organizations as though vicarious trauma is going to greatly impact their workforce and that using some of the that toolkit is is
16:20:56 Yeah, thank you. Jessie. I'm gonna ask this next one of you.
16:21:01 How do you tailor services so that they are culturally competent for different populations in your community?
16:21:13 yeah, of course. So So even though people tend to think of the gay community as this, just one big, it's you know it really is.
16:21:24 It's it's it's a big community, but it's very diverse, and even though pulse there was, you know you'll you'll see it in the news that it was predominantly lab next, night or Latinite But even that in itself. Is highly.
16:21:41 Diverse when you, when you think about all the other people that weren't considered, you have the black community.
16:21:46 You have. You know you had people who who aren't just from the States that are from other parts of the world.
16:21:55 And so it was a really diverse You You throw in gender.
16:21:58 You throw in sexual orientation. So you had people from all walks of life.
16:22:03 I would definitely think about intersectionality and how it plays a role.
16:22:07 It's it. It really played a role, especially for our staff, being able to recognize our places of privilege whenever we sit down with our clients, being able to understand that.
16:22:19 you know you might have never undergone through a citizenship process.
16:22:24 But then, when someone who's across from you has been promised that they're going to get their immigration papers or their citizenship, you know, understanding what that process means, it's the truth is it doesn't.
16:22:36 Happen overnight. It could be 5 60 years later, and they still have gotten any Other people.
16:22:41 Were finalized. And so for us, intersectionality played a big role, making sure that our team was pretty diverse.
16:22:51 it was predominantly Hispanic and next, when we first started, but really taking into account, you know, race gender, sexual orientation, really knowing in our audience, really knowing the people that we are serving and making sure that they feel represented right that the person across from them can speak
16:23:07 to them, and with language that they're gonna understand.
16:23:13 So I would say, Yeah, I would say intersectionality, understanding that.
16:21:08 I know you kind of touched upon that in your presentation. I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add to that
16:23:22 Thank you And, Neil, I'm gonna ask this one of you.
16:23:27 What more can be done to support mass file and survivors relevant to traditional news, media and social media.
16:23:33 So at any tip that you may offer to survivors.
16:23:41 yeah, So this is a really big one, And I think it's something that we see communities when they first have an incident and mass violence kind of fall, you know, in you know, to some some holes with So immediately.
16:23:58 It's important for the victims and the families to recognize that they do not have to speak with the media, and they should not feel precious to speak with the media.
16:23:36 If they face questions on social media or just managing the news, and media in general
16:24:09 and I think it can be helpful. So one of the things we did is we had a public information officer kind of assigned to work with the families, so that if there are media requests they have a you know, a representative to work with the media to say please you know they're
16:24:30 not going to do interviews or, you know, to a range that to review the questions before the interviews, and to be there and provide support.
16:24:43 If that interviewer crosses the line to stop the interview and say That is not an appropriate question, but also, you know, to provide advice to the family.
16:24:55 Sometimes we'll see young children that are immediately out there on national news, and you know I'm always concerned.
16:25:00 I'm always worried. I know some of our survivors.
16:25:03 They did you know, because the media was everywhere, and we had survivors everywhere, you know with 22,000 people down, there really was not a controlled situation, and so the media was down there.
16:25:16 Getting interviews, and I have survivors to this day that tell me that they're they're traumatized every time they see this interview, that they did.
16:25:24 Or you know they it it they don't like that.
16:25:29 It's there, and it's gonna be there forever.
16:25:32 So 10 years down the road, when they apply for a job And someone does a Google search, it's gonna be there.
16:25:36 So, you know, just providing that guidance and information before that they do those interviews.
16:25:43 and then social media, recognizing that social media has its place.
16:25:51 But it's also okay to turn it off that it can cross a line where it becomes unhealthy, and, you know, provide alternative connections so that they do fill like Okay, I can turn this off.
16:26:05 I'm still going to be able to connect with other members of this impact at community.
16:24:25 Yes.
16:26:22 Thank you, and the mass violence center also has some additional tip sheets as well as managing the media as well as managing trauma keys That may be going on as it relates to the media alright so just for time sake each of you if you just put 30 s, or one word
16:26:40 or one sentence, as far as what would be one Take home message that you have for anyone that's just starting in the space of building resilience after mass violence.
16:26:54 yeah, I think that my word of wisdom would be something that someone from the 9, 11 community had said to me, which is that the product will always match.
16:27:03 The process. And so I think that since you know, being victim, centered and centering the experiences of those most directly impacted, is the work that we're all in that that that really we always have to make sure our processes, match that if we hope that that's the work that we can do in
16:26:51 So I'm gonna start with you, Maggie.
16:27:25 my advice is to practice gratitude. This work is not easy, so if you always look for the reasons to be grateful, because I am extremely grateful that I am able to do this work i'm honored every day to work with those that I work, with and when I focus on that I can always
16:27:22 Thank you. Tania.
16:27:53 I don't know if I have one specific word, but one big takeaway is to continue to hope that the mission and and vision that we have It's it's an incredible fight to be a part of It's hard.
16:28:07 It's challenging. But being able to be a compassionate witness for people as they go through this journey, can can mean a whole world of the difference, and on a personal level, it's I know it's changed me personally, and as a professional so you know, I would say, really learn to
16:27:48 Thank you. And Jesse
16:28:42 Thank you. And vine is probably similar, is having patience and compassion, I think, are really important Patience and compassion for those around us and patience and compassion for ourselves; because, as folks mentioned, it is tough work and so making sure we're always trying to practice and extend that
16:29:04 compassion. So thank you all. Thank you so much.
16:29:08 Our presenters here. I just want to highlight our next National Town Hall, which will be in January, the topic will be on hate, motivated mass violence, crimes.
16:29:18 we'll have kind of our websites here for our different organizations that participated today.
16:29:24 Ovc: The 1027 healing partnership Vegas, Strong, Call Orlando Center, and the Mass Violence center, and then we do have a survey.
16:29:32 If we'd love to get feedback from you all I know we could probably spend all day talking about resiliency and recovery.
16:29:38 And so hopefully, we just give you a couple nuggets for you to take away with.
16:29:41 But please complete a survey for us, and it will be in a chat box box.
16:29:47 And you'll be getting an email request for to complete the survey as well.
16:29:51 And with that I thank you again to Youugenia and Jesse, and to Neil and Maggie for being here today.
16:30:05 if you've joined us by phone. If you have joined us by phone, please make sure you send us an email to Nm.