A Healthy Communities Wyandotte program that aims to raise awareness about the impact of trauma on community health has a new home.
During a December 12 event at Memorial Hall, the Unified Government Public Health Department announced that Wyandot Inc., would assume leadership of Alive and Thrive Wyandotte County.
As the county's designated community mental health center, Wyandot, Inc. is well-positioned to lead efforts to foster a trauma-informed and more resilient Wyandotte County. Alive and Thrive has been doing that work for the last year as part of the Health Department's Healthy Communities Wyandotte.
"We're very excited to have Wyandot Inc. take on this important work," said Ray Daniels, chairman of Alive and Thrive. "They're the experts. They've been providing trauma-informed care training and are intimately familiar with the impact trauma has on our community's health. We really appreciate that they're willing to take this on."
Randy Callstrom, Wyandot Inc., President and CEO, said the mental health center was eager to build on the foundation that Alive and Thrive has already created since it was launched over the last year and a half.
Callstrom said that Wyandot, Inc. would be staffing Alive & Thrive's work but that its direction would come from the community. To that end, Wyandot, Inc. has formed a Steering Committee made up of organizations and individuals that have already been working toward building a trauma-informed and resilient community.
"We're just beginning to articulate what it means to become a 'trauma-informed community,' " Callstrom said. "Engaging grassroots organizations and residents, as well as larger institutions will be a critical part of our work."
Moving forward, Wyandot Inc. plans to hire staff to help organize Alive and Thrive's work, a position funded with a grant from the REACH Healthcare Foundation. It also will pursue additional funding with a coalition of community stakeholders for Alive & Thrive.