Below is a summary of what the ITRC has been up to in the past few months:
1. Conference on Preparing People for Climate Change In California
After a slow start on registrations, the Jan 24-25 conference in Oakland ended up being sold out. On a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being excellent and 1 being poor), the 95 evaluations we received (out of 140 attendees) average out at 4.65, which we consider to be excellent. Two people said the conference changed their lives (one emailed afterwards to say they were quitting their job with a county health department to work on building resilience), and many participants continue to communicate with us.
2. Follow-up: California Transformational Resilience Steering Committee
After the conference we organized a statewide steering committee composed of conference attendees (and a few others) that will lead efforts to grow a Transformational Resilience movement in California. In specific, the committee will: a) inventory existing psychological and psycho-social-spiritual resilience building programs; and then b) develop strategies to contact them and discuss ways in which they can include building resilience for climate change related traumas and toxic stresses; and c) develop and propose municipal, county, and state policies to authorize and fund local Transformational Resilience initiatives. Grad students will do the actual research and writing.
We will soon identify committee co-chairs and are having conversations with 2 local organizations about possibly coordinating the effort.
3. Follow-up to Nov 15-17 Conference in Portland: Pacific Northwest Transformational Resilience Steering Committee
As in California, as a follow up to the 2017 conference in Portland, we organized a regional steering committee that will lead efforts to grow a Transformational Resilience movement in the PNW. The goals and methods will be similar to those in California, and the two committees will communicate and plan together as well.
4. Outreach to National and International Organizations
We will continue to organize conferences, but they are very time and energy consuming. So in the past two months we have also begun conversations with a number of national and international organizations about partnering to offer, or offering their own education and training programs focused on building Transformational Resilience. It is too soon to know which if any of the organizations might engage, but we have had very positive conversations with:
- Ashoka ChangeMakers:works around the world with "social entrepreneurs" engaged in "innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social, cultural, and environmental challenges." They seem very interested--especially their "Empathy" and "Wellbeing" Programs, and are discussing if and how to partner with us (https://www.ashoka.org/en/program/ashoka-changemakers)
- Anxiety and Depression Association of America(ADAA): They provide education, including webinars, and other services and get 25 million annual website visitors looking for information. They also seem very interested and are taking our proposal to their board. (https://adaa.org/learn-about-ADAA)
- Teen Mental Health (Canada). Somewhat interested--but only in "evidence based" interventions (http://teenmentalhealth.org/)
- Others contacted with calls pending or awaiting a reply: Mental Health America, Time to Change (UK), Mind Your Mind, Freedom From Fear (NY), National Council for Behavioral Health, American Public Health Association, others.
5. Possible 3-2-1 Mobil Phone Resilience Building Project in Africa
When reaching out to the organizations above we connected with Human Network International and Viamo, non-profits that offer free mobil phone call in service to millions of people in 15 African nations and a few in Asia. Most people in Africa now have mobile phones (but not access to the internet). People call 3-2-1 and get information in their own language about issues ranging from women's health to disaster response and agricultural problems.
Viamo staff is very interested in adding trauma prevention and healing information to their call in service. ITRC core steering committee member Elaine Miller Karas and her staff are involved, as is Ernie Niemi, an ITRC advisory committee member who has spent considerable time in Africa. Three African organizations have also become involved. We cannot guarantee the outcome yet, but the potential exists to eventually reach millions of people with resilience building information.
For a free demo of the service go to: http://hni.org/what-we-do/3-2-1-service/
6. Free Spring Webinars
As we have for a number of years, we are offering a number of free 1 hr introductory webinars on the need, methods, and benefits of building Transformational Resilience for climate traumas and stresses.
The first webinar is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13, from 12-1 pm Pacific Time. Over 180 people have registered, most from the U.S. but there are some from Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
The schedule of webinars with registrations links can be found on the ITRC website:
http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/
Please pass it around!
7. We have also been involved with a number of other projects, meetings, and potential actions. More information when things come to fruition.
Let us know if you have questions or suggestions for other ways to grow a movement to build widespread levels of Transformational Resilience for climate traumas and toxic stresses.
Contact: tr@trig-cli.org
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