South Dakota Resilient Communities is investing in community-led efforts to prevent childhood adversity and increase family resiliency. With support from South Dakota Community Foundation’s BIG Grant, six communities in Eastern South Dakota will be selected in 2023 to receiving funding for collective community efforts.

“South Dakota Community Foundation’s Beyond Idea Grant’s goal is to support community-based problem-solving efforts,” said Ginger Niemann, SDCF Senior Program Officer. “The Resilient Communities effort focuses on Adverse Childhood Experiences in a way that makes sense at the community-level.”

Facilitating teams in Brookings and Codington Counties have successfully used community coalitions to educate stakeholders and community members on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). They have addressed ways to increase Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) in their community, with the goal to build more resilient, self-healing communities.

“With what we have learned in our first two communities, we are excited to expand this effort to more South Dakota areas,” said Nikki Eining, Resilient Communities facilitator and Brookings County team member. “There has been great interest among multidisciplinary team members in other communities, and the added grant funding will be helpful as new areas explore what this framework looks like for their identified geography of interest.”

The Resilient Communities process and technical assistance through CPCM is available to access by all South Dakota communities. Four Eastern SD communities will be selected to receive funding for 2023 to support beginning this process in their communities. “The framework for Resilient Communities is meant to be customized to work alongside current community initiatives or coalitions,” said Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment Director, Carrie Sanderson. “The cohort model will enable us to onboard additional communities at the same time, learning alongside one another and adopting best practices in a more efficient manner,” said Sanderson.

To learn more about the grant funding available and the Resilient Communities framework, visit ResilientSD.com.

Stephanie Judson, President & CEO, SDCF (right) and Ginger Niemann, Senior Program Officer, SDCF (left) present the BIG grant to Darla Biel, Assistant Director, CPCM (center).

About CPCM
The Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment (CPCM), sdcpcm.com, joins local, tribal, state and federal efforts in the fight against child sexual abuse and other forms of maltreatment in South Dakota. CPCM is designed to help South Dakotans know of, respond to and prevent child maltreatment, while supporting resilient families.

About the SDCF
SDCF is a public non-profit organization established in 1987. SDCF, with offices in Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Aberdeen administers 1,200 funds benefiting hundreds of charitable organizations annually. The Foundation distributed nearly $30 million in grants in 2022 which made a tremendous difference in communities statewide. This would not have been possible without the generosity of our donors. If you have a specific cause you would like to support or would prefer to give for the general good of our state, please visit https://sdcommunityfoundation.org/giving to learn more or call 1-800-888-1842.

About the Bush Foundation
The Bush Foundation invests in great ideas and the people who power them. Established in 1953 by 3M Executive Archibald Bush and his wife Edyth, the Foundation encourages individuals and organizations to think bigger and think differently about what is possible in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geographic area.