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The North Carolina Healthy and Resilient Communities Initiative (NCH&RCI), housed at the North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) has granted funding to nine non-profit community organizations to address trauma and resilience.

NC Healthy & Resilient Communities Initiative works to build healthy and resilient communities for young children and families, creating resilience across each generation by bringing together more than 40 multi-sector community collaboratives to build resilience across the state.

Through funding from the Department of Health and Human Services as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES ACT), the initiative has selected community organizations to develop awareness, skills and action plans to create community-led strategies to address trauma and resilience goals. Each organization will receive between $14,000-$44,000 to serve their local communities.

Three Smart Start local partnerships were selected as part of the Initiative to address trauma: Children & Youth Partnership for Dare County, Partnership for Children & Families (Lee County) and Robeson County Partnership for Children. Other organizations to receive funding to address resilience include the Rural Opportunity Institute (Edgecombe County); Coastal Horizons (Pender & Brunswick Counties); Health Foundation (Wilkes County); Caldwell County Schools (Caldwell County), Together for Resilient Youth (Durham County) and Communities in Schools (New Hanover County).

“Participating organizations will be able to build their infrastructure and capacity to reach new members of their community and create trauma and resilience specific training experiences that are most needed in their respective communities,” stated a Smart Start press release. “This work is particularly timely due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and families.”

“I’m excited about this opportunity,” says Amy Cubbage, president of NCPC. “The pandemic has only exacerbated the need for a widespread focus on community resilience. By addressing the factors that lead to trauma and creating protective factors against adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and environments, we can better prepare children to thrive.”

The NC Healthy & Resilient Communities Initiative is made possible through funding support from Kate B. Reynolds Foundation. NCPC’s resilient communities officer works closely with local collaboratives to work towards statewide resiliency goals through a community lens. The resilient communities officer will work with selected grant applicants as they serve communities throughout 2022 and into 2023.

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