Phase 4: Community Resilience Plans & Initiatives
FamilyWise Services is partnering with Children’s Mental Health and Family Services Collaboratives to support Collaboratives' communities to move from understanding neurobiology, epigenetics, ACEs, and resilience (NEAR) Science to Community Resilience Planning for possible community responses.
In working towards reducing ACEs, increasing resilience, and promoting trauma-informed practices, communities are encouraged to develop a Community Resilience Plan that incorporates these four objectives:
- Leadership expansion
- Community collaboration/Coming together
- Shared learning
- Results-based decision making
The goals of the plan are two-fold:
- Enhance community collaboration and capacity
- Implement strategies to enhance protective/resilience factors and prevent/reduce ACEs
The Collaborative Coordinator and local Community Resilience Planning Team will complete the Community Resilience Plan based on Community Resilience Conversations. This plan should reflect the actions and commitments of the Collaborative, partners, and parents to decrease ACEs and increase protective factors in their community. The plan will help the Collaborative identify community goals and priorities for concentrating efforts to create self-healing communities. The plan may connect with the Collaborative’s current strategic plan or some Collaboratives may even choose to adopt and approve the plan as the strategic plan for the Collaborative.
The Collaborative does not need to fill out every goal or objective. The Community Resilience Conversations should drive the plan and it is expected the plan will evolve with more conversations and more participants to meet changing needs in the community.
The Community Resilience Plans may contain a pilot project or potential program to propose later as a Community Resilience Initiative. DHS hopes to offer opportunities to support these initiatives as part of the fourth phase of this project. Collaboratives that have completed Phase 3 (Community Resilience Conversations) and entered Phase 4 (Community Resilience Plans and Initiatives) will be able to apply for a small grant for seed funding to initiate a program or project. The Community Resilience Plan will accompany the application for the Community Resilience Initiative.
Click here to download the Phase 4: Community Resilience Plan Guidance Document & Template
