McMinnville, Ore. — Yamhill Community Care Organization and Early Learning Hub are offering a workshop to service providers and families, focused on building trust within communities. The event will feature a presentation from Raul Almazar, RN, MA and Malcolm Aquinas, PRS on how to establish trusting, effective relationships between providers and community members. The team will then lead a multi-sector discussion between families and providers, including childcare, education, social service, and healthcare providers.
Dr. Almazar and Mr. Aquinas were connected with Yamhill CCO through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, for which they are contractors. Prior to working as full-time consultant in 2009, Mr. Almazar served as Deputy Director for the State of Illinois Division of Mental Health where he was charged to facilitate an organizational culture shift in all 10 State -operated facilities towards person-centered, trauma-informed, recovery-promoting, non-coercive treatment settings. Malcolm Aquinas is a Peer Recovery Specialist at Oregon State Hospital with 32 years of lived experience as a recipient of mental health services and has been a wilderness ranger, firefighter, law enforcement officer, and public school teacher. He now walks a mental health recovery path and actively promotes person-centered, trauma-informed services through a number of different roles and venues.
Trauma, experienced in childhood or adulthood, can have lasting negative effects on individuals and communities. Often one of the first barriers to addressing trauma is finding a trusted support network of friends, family, and professionals. Creating this trust is the second pillar of building a trauma-informed community, the first pillar being “Building Awareness.” The third and fourth pillars are increasing collaboration and skill-building, respectively. YCCO plans to offer an additional workshop in autumn 2018 focused on increasing collaboration. In 2019, a final train-the-trainer event is planned, to start setting local professionals and families up to build a trauma-informed community together.
Yamhill CCO’s trauma-informed care series will bring members of our community together to learn about trauma and consider how we can build resiliency and strengthen families as a strategy to improve public health and education outcomes. Jenn Richter, Yamhill CCO Early Learning Administrator, remarks “Unresolved trauma is at the root of numerous poor outcomes — in health, in education, and in lifelong success. In order to continuing growing as a community that promotes whole person wellness, it is critical that we take time to ensure that we are building trusting relationships between providers and families.”
CONTACT: Jenn Richter Early Learning Administrator 503-376-7421
Attendees will walk away from the event with tools to create more trusting relationships, with each other and with the community. Registration is open to the first 80 registrants, and slots are filling up fast!
The event is Tuesday, February 13th from 8:30 a.m. to noon, at the McMinnville Cooperative Ministries.
For more information about the program, contact Jenn Richter at jrichter@yamhillcco.org.
