TRACEs (trauma, resiliency and adverse childhood experiences) Central Oregon partners with other nonprofits to help adults and children in the area thrive.
According to Katie McClure, director of TRACEs, in the fall of 2016 a group of organizations commissioned a review of what other communities were doing to address adverse childhood experiences. What they found was the difference between those who have a lot of adversity and go on to have a lot of adult challenges versus those who have similar adversity and are better equipped to thrive is called resilience, and McClure set out to find a way to help those in need.
Part of TRACEs' mission is to promote community education about the effects of ACEs and the power of resilience, and to strengthen individual knowledge and skills. When children understand how ACEs have impacted them, they can better find ways to become more resilient.
"We do this through TRACEs 101 Community Conversations, one-on-one meetings, sponsoring and having booths at local events and attending local community meetings to understand how we can best support local efforts throughout the region," McClure wrote in an email.
Another way TRACEs helps people thrive is to influence policy and legislation to remove barriers and make it easier to nurture resilience in our communities, McClure said.
TRACEs also sponsors "learning community" gatherings throughout the year where organizations and individuals share what they are doing, and learn about how they do their work to be more compassionate and trauma informed, McClure said.
An example of the work TRACEs does was helping fund a summer camp in Gilchrist for students to help nurture resilience when the kids in the area weren't in school.
TRACEs also fosters coalitions and networks to better coordinate the services they provide, data collection, policy work and how they learn together on the issues.
McClure said the United Way serves as the backbone of the organization, and that it partners with other groups including The Central Oregon Health Council, Better Together, the Early Learning Hub and Let's Talk Diversity.
There's also a TRACEs Youth and Children in Foster Care work group that McClure said has developed a shared strategy to better ensure that all youth and children in foster care—and at risk of entering foster care—have their needs met. McClure said there's also a TRACEs All Babies group that is currently focused on addressing the child care crisis by removing barriers for quality child care providers.
McClure said TRACEs serves as a matchmaker between those who want to learn more and those who provide training.
"We also sponsor train-the-trainers to increase the expertise available in Central Oregon," McClure said. "People can contact [email protected] to request a trainer or to let us know that they provide related trainings."
