Resilient Communities: South Dakota provides a technical framework to support community coalitions to prepare, know, respond to, prevent and sustain multi-sector efforts to address childhood maltreatment and its impacts across the lifespan. Facilitated by a local team and supported by a CPCM Navigator, Resilient Communities is a process that help all community sectors collaboratively identify local strengths and opportunities to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences and maltreatment.
Become a Resilient Community
The Resilient Communities process is broken into five phases: Prepare, Know, Respond, Prevent, Sustain.
Understand Resilient Communities
Resilient Communities shifts the focus on ACES prevention away from individual responsibility and towards community solutions, while also raising awareness of and leveraging the existing strengths and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) inherent in every community. CPCM values that every community is unique and supports adaptations of the initiative to meet cultural strengths and place-based needs
Identify Facilitating Team
The Resilient Communities process is time-intensive and requires dialogue and collaboration from many sectors and stakeholders. Although each community will be unique, going through this framework and its steps will prepare you for success. In the PREPARE phase, you will identify 3-5 individuals willing to lead community change with support and training from CPCM and our partners across the state.
Self-Healing Communities Training
Each facilitating team will complete a 3-hour Self-Healing Communities training, and at least two members on each team will complete a 6-hour ACE Interface Presenter training so that the team is well-prepared to begin Phase 2.
Increase awareness of the impacts of ACES in your community.
As the facilitating team hosts community meetings, you’ll increase multi-sector awareness of the impact of ACEs and child maltreatment. This will help your community understand the importance and role of community in building protective factors and resiliency for individuals and families.
Review policies, procedures and systems used in your community.
Once you have developed an awareness and understanding of ACEs and childhood maltreatment, review the current processes used in your community to respond to maltreatment. Ensure your facilitating team’s review of current procedures covers all types of multidisciplinary response. Your assessment of the current steps can help you identify opportunities to ensure that your community responds to childhood maltreatment in evidence-based best practices to lesson future harm.
Identify strengths and resources in your community to prevent childhood maltreatment.
Once you have reviewed your community’s process to respond to maltreatment, you can assess current prevention strategies and new opportunities to increase strengths and resources in your community to build protective factors for individuals and families.
Create a community plan and pledge.
As you are recognized as a SD Resilient Community, your final step is to ensure efforts to know, respond, and prevent effectively to childhood maltreatment continues into the future. Communities will continue to have quarterly meetings, training, and evaluation methods to continue improving upon their ability to Know, Respond, and Prevent child maltreatment.
