What did winning a Compassionate Champion Award mean to you?

As an organization, the award validated the hard work the Project New Start team has invested in building our knowledge of the causes and effects of trauma and identifying strategies to improve our work.

How have you continued your trauma-informed work since last year?

The Project New Start team has discovered areas where we can improve as a staff and organization to enhance the likelihood of sustained success for those we serve. Our team has continued to build our knowledge of Trauma-Informed Care by completing the Professional Certification in Trauma and Resilience Level 2 awarded by Florida State University in March 2021.

How have you seen trauma-informed care make a difference for the beneficiaries you work with?

As a result of our growth through the stages of Trauma-Informed Care, we gained an understanding that the extent of adverse childhood and adult experiences suffered by those we serve has a greater impact on their decision-making and behavior than we previously recognized and acknowledged. Developing the skill to view the individuals we serve through a trauma lens has enhanced our ability to identify and secure trauma specific interventions to support their long-term success.

Do you have any advice for potential nominees this year?

As an organization, you have to make the commitment to be educated on Trauma-Informed Care and then actively implement those principles with those you serve, your team, your board of directors and volunteers. Continue to build on your knowledge, apply what you learn to yourself first, and continually challenge one another to be better.

What did winning a Compassionate Champion Award mean to you?

It meant a lot to be recognized for the ongoing work we do to address and mitigate trauma in children and families throughout Delaware.

How have you seen trauma-informed care make a difference for the beneficiaries you work with?

Yes and now our focus is on working with parents to halt intergenerational trauma.  Rather than focusing on individuals, we are focusing on systems and strengths to improve attachments and heal traumas in families.

Do you have any advice for potential nominees this year? 

Be confident, consistent, and creative in your efforts to help heal trauma.  No effort is too small and if you impact the life of one, that is success.

What did winning a Compassionate Champion Award mean to you?

In receiving this award, the importance of having a trauma informed lens in supporting and understanding student needs within the school was highlighted. A broader audience was potentially reached due to virtual accommodations as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. 

How have you seen trauma-informed care make a difference for the beneficiaries you work with?

We do our work in communities and communities are made up of families, and families are collections of individuals whose experiences with their world, shape them with brains and bodies that are built to thrive or survive. This can be viewed on a spectrum with Survive on one end and Thrive on the other and we all fall somewhere depending on our unique experience with our environment and our genetics. Understand both behavior and mental health “symptoms” with the lens of how brains are built and understand ACE’s impact on brain architecture provide hope and in HOPE we have learned how to effectively help! Compassionate connection through safe relationships nurtures, and begins to rewire and help us move from survival to thriving.  

Do you have any advice for potential nominees this year?

Continue the amazing work of changing lives through helping our communities understand the impact of Trauma on the developing brain and the hope that lies in understanding what has shaped our body’s reaction system! Our brains are constantly capable of creating new pathways when the old ones are no longer needed or have become the problem where once they were the pathway to our ability to survive. As we seek “herd” immunity from the Coronavirus, the work of trauma informed is to bring hope to the “herd” of suffering from the effects of trauma that we now understand more fully.