In February, the Bounce Coalition wrapped a year-long project to bring trauma-informed care trainings and social emotional learning opportunities to three out-of-school time (OST) providers in Louisville. Thanks to funding provided by the C. E. and S. Foundation, the Bounce Coalition worked with YMCA of Greater Louisville, Sowing Seeds with Faith, and Kentucky Refugee Ministries to bring engagement and learning opportunities to staff, parents/caregivers, and youth.
Each partner organization is unique in their trauma-informed journey, organizational size, and the populations they serve. Because of this, Bounce attempted to authentically address each organization’s individual needs by customizing the type of support and evaluation that was provided through a number of flexible hours of training and technical assistance. For example one organization chose to focus primarily on providing training and support to staff to ensure they are prioritizing self-care and resilience-building within themselves. Another organization chose to focus efforts on providing the youth they serve with social emotional learning and resilience-building tools/strategies.
In addition to the flexible training and technical assistance hours provided to each organization, quarterly Learning Collaboratives were also held to bring key agency leadership together to share best practices, celebrate successes, and collectively problem solve challenges around creating trauma-informed spaces and services for the youth they serve. At the last Learning Collaborative of the grant, partners came together in-person to celebrate the work of the past year and to discuss the aspects of the “shield” their organization can provide to their youth to help prevent and mitigate trauma.
Bounce also worked with La Casita Center to train Bounce and partner staff on cultural hospitality to help assist with providing trainings and services that were culturally competent. Finally, Bounce hosted a Bounce University: Train the Trainer program with select staff from each organization, which creates sustainability within each organization to continue their trauma-informed efforts even after the grant is over.
We would like to thank our partner organizations – YMCA of Greater Louisville, Sowing Seeds with Faith, and Kentucky Refugee Ministries – for their commitment to providing trauma-informed and healing-centered care for the youth that they serve.
