How it started
This project was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Our team was first formed through Project THRIVE,
a city-wide initiative to promote Trauma, Healing, and Resilience in the wake of Violent Events.
Krista and Marie were part of a needs assessment in one community in Mobile, Alabama. Community members and other stakeholders identified that there was a need for youth-focused enrichment, fun activities, and safe spaces. Community members also identified strengths of a rich history of a community that had supported each other, despite years of injustice.
We decided to work together with community stakeholders to create a program that would empower youth to move towards the lives they want, and that would help adults, as one advisory board member put it, “see the spark in each child” and to call that spark into its full potential.
We take a strengths-based approach in this program. We collected stories from community members of resilience, value-driven lives, and collective action that demonstrated hope, peace, wisdom, and forgiveness. We use these stories to illustrate these strengths—bringing them to life and making them relevant. Each strength is featured in independent modules, which includes activities that provide an opportunity for youth to teach each other, to express disagreement, and to identify their values and practice the skills that help people to live lives that are consistent with their values.
We do not ignore the impact of centuries of injustice, trauma, and adversity that continue to exert a great toll on the most vulnerable members of our communities. We believe that this program should be implemented as part of a larger, systemic, concerted effort to promote equity and ensure justice for everyone.
With this program, we seek to be part of a community that sees the future we want for our children and moves to make that future come true.
a city-wide initiative to promote Trauma, Healing, and Resilience in the wake of Violent Events.
Krista and Marie were part of a needs assessment in one community in Mobile, Alabama. Community members and other stakeholders identified that there was a need for youth-focused enrichment, fun activities, and safe spaces. Community members also identified strengths of a rich history of a community that had supported each other, despite years of injustice.
We decided to work together with community stakeholders to create a program that would empower youth to move towards the lives they want, and that would help adults, as one advisory board member put it, “see the spark in each child” and to call that spark into its full potential.
We take a strengths-based approach in this program. We collected stories from community members of resilience, value-driven lives, and collective action that demonstrated hope, peace, wisdom, and forgiveness. We use these stories to illustrate these strengths—bringing them to life and making them relevant. Each strength is featured in independent modules, which includes activities that provide an opportunity for youth to teach each other, to express disagreement, and to identify their values and practice the skills that help people to live lives that are consistent with their values.
We do not ignore the impact of centuries of injustice, trauma, and adversity that continue to exert a great toll on the most vulnerable members of our communities. We believe that this program should be implemented as part of a larger, systemic, concerted effort to promote equity and ensure justice for everyone.
With this program, we seek to be part of a community that sees the future we want for our children and moves to make that future come true.