Bright Promises Expands to Address Urgent Need for Trauma-Informed Programs
Bright Promises Expands Healing, Leading, Changing Initiative to Serve South and West Side Communities
Racism is the root of most inequity in and racial trauma impacts all of us. Itis our social responsibility to recognize and address the impact of racial-based traumatic stress on our children and youth.
Building on a decade of work to advance the field of childhood trauma, Bright Promises launched the Healing, Leading, Changing initiative in 2021 to address childhood trauma caused by racism. The Healing, Leading, Changing initiative seeks to improve outcomes related to youth racial trauma, including increased autonomy amongst youth to address racial trauma, reduced symptoms of race-based stress, and increased environments of healing.
Over the last year, all of Bright Promises' community partners have increased access to healing spaces where youth have the opportunity to collaboratively address personal and community issues through a racial trauma lens. Further, all of Bright Promises community partners observed benefits among youth who participated in programming supported through the Healing, Leading, Changing initiative.
Our community partners reported an increase in opportunities for youth to enhance their leadership when addressing racial trauma and healing. Specifically, our they shared that opportunities for youth to facilitate workshops, lead actions, participate in advocacy, present to adult partners, and lead peace circles promoted youth leadership. “We have observed that youth participating in our programming are growing into their own leadership, becoming more confident in facilitation, co-leading programming, and leading our actions," one community partner shared.
Announcing New Partnerships
This year, Bright Promises is expanding the Healing, Leading, Changing initiative to serve communities of the South and West of Chicago through new partnerships with four community-based organizations.
We are proud to announce that the following organizations will join the 2024-2025 Healing, Leading, Changing Cohort. These leading organizations are partnering with Bright Promises to drive forward the response to the trauma caused by racism that impacts hundreds of thousands of Chicagoland children and youth.
Chicago Youth Programs
Chicago Youth Programs' (CYP) mission is to improve the long-term life opportunities and health of at-risk youth using a comprehensive approach aimed at developing their capabilities. Their goal for each child is to complete a higher education degree, providing the opportunity to escape poverty and avoid all the health and social risks associated with living in poverty. Their innovative model utilizes healthcare and data integration in sustained programming that supports youth in all stages of emotional and physical development. Serving over 180 youth annually, their Chicago Youth Programs Peer Mentoring for Preventative Health Program uses a peer-to-peer model to help youth heal from racial trauma. With guidance from health professionals, teens design lessons addressing trauma caused by racism. Using lived experience, peer mentors implement programming identifying and contextualizing racial trauma while promoting healing and additional resources in the form of games, skits, and positive music.
Kuumba Lynx
Kuumba Lynx (KL) is committed to the lives of youth using urban art and performance to cultivate strong communities built on a foundation of love. They improve behavioral health and social outcomes among youth of color by using hip hop as a catalyst for personal development. Serving over 230youth annually, the Kuumba Lynx Restorative and Transformative Justice Initiative uses a comprehensive approach to youth development and arts education by centering Transformative Justice as an organic part of all of our programming, prioritizing the active work of healing, which is key to reducing youth violence and trauma. Their Transformative (TJ) and Restorative Justice(RJ) programming is a foundational component of their HipHop Arts Continuum for at-risk, low-income Black and Brown youth. Through arts, wellness, and healing, they directly address the racial trauma of youth in our community and give youth the tools they need to avoid being perpetrators and victims of violence, to heal from racial trauma; and to be leaders in the transformation of their communities.
Alliance of the SouthEast (ASE)
The mission of the Alliance of the SouthEast (ASE) is to build the capacity of leaders, organizers, and associations that carry out community and social change. They envision a powerful grassroots base that impacts decision makers and wins real improvements in their neighborhoods. ASE is a multicultural, interfaith, intergenerational coalition of faith and community organizations, schools, youth, and businesses, all working together to address the challenges facing the neighborhoods of Southeast Chicago. The ASE Youth Leadership Council (YLC) is a leadership development and civic engagement initiative. ASE provides leadership trainings to African American &Latino youth (ages 12-18) to give them a voice in the community, engage them in positive activities, and unite youth around common priorities. By giving youth a voice and increasing their civic engagement, the YLC moves youth from withdrawing or being reactive to trauma around them (and feeling helplessness) to developing their resilience and empowering youth to proactively create their own solutions to address neighborhood issues and take ownership of their community.
New Community Outreach
New Community Outreach (NCO) is a community-based organization committed to cultivating restorative spaces for youth and the community in the Greater Bronzeville neighborhood. Serving over 175 youth annually, the Knowledge Empower Youth (KEY) program is a youth restorative justice program, using healing circles to offer students consistent safe spaces to process and heal from their lived experiences with trauma and to move forward through increased opportunities to engage in powerful ways in their community. KEY utilizes their original curriculum to intentionally guide students through circle, so they have the opportunity to process trauma that stems from racialized encounters and have time to digest experiences. They also create space to activate their power towards leadership and community engagement. Woven throughout the circle structure are opportunities for trauma care and mentoring, as students share stories, digest experiences, and cultivate their future goals and dreams as change agents.
Bright Promises Expands Healing, Leading, Changing Initiative to Serve South and West Side Communities
Racism is the root of most inequity in and racial trauma impacts all of us. Itis our social responsibility to recognize and address the impact of racial-based traumatic stress on our children and youth.
Building on a decade of work to advance the field of childhood trauma, Bright Promises launched the Healing, Leading, Changing initiative in 2021 to address childhood trauma caused by racism. The Healing, Leading, Changing initiative seeks to improve outcomes related to youth racial trauma, including increased autonomy amongst youth to address racial trauma, reduced symptoms of race-based stress, and increased environments of healing.
Over the last year, all of Bright Promises' community partners have increased access to healing spaces where youth have the opportunity to collaboratively address personal and community issues through a racial trauma lens. Further, all of Bright Promises community partners observed benefits among youth who participated in programming supported through the Healing, Leading, Changing initiative.
Our community partners reported an increase in opportunities for youth to enhance their leadership when addressing racial trauma and healing. Specifically, our they shared that opportunities for youth to facilitate workshops, lead actions, participate in advocacy, present to adult partners, and lead peace circles promoted youth leadership. “We have observed that youth participating in our programming are growing into their own leadership, becoming more confident in facilitation, co-leading programming, and leading our actions," one community partner shared.
Announcing New Partnerships
This year, Bright Promises is expanding the Healing, Leading, Changing initiative to serve communities of the South and West of Chicago through new partnerships with four community-based organizations.
We are proud to announce that the following organizations will join the 2024-2025 Healing, Leading, Changing Cohort. These leading organizations are partnering with Bright Promises to drive forward the response to the trauma caused by racism that impacts hundreds of thousands of Chicagoland children and youth.
Chicago Youth Programs
Chicago Youth Programs' (CYP) mission is to improve the long-term life opportunities and health of at-risk youth using a comprehensive approach aimed at developing their capabilities. Their goal for each child is to complete a higher education degree, providing the opportunity to escape poverty and avoid all the health and social risks associated with living in poverty. Their innovative model utilizes healthcare and data integration in sustained programming that supports youth in all stages of emotional and physical development. Serving over 180 youth annually, their Chicago Youth Programs Peer Mentoring for Preventative Health Program uses a peer-to-peer model to help youth heal from racial trauma. With guidance from health professionals, teens design lessons addressing trauma caused by racism. Using lived experience, peer mentors implement programming identifying and contextualizing racial trauma while promoting healing and additional resources in the form of games, skits, and positive music.
Kuumba Lynx
Kuumba Lynx (KL) is committed to the lives of youth using urban art and performance to cultivate strong communities built on a foundation of love. They improve behavioral health and social outcomes among youth of color by using hip hop as a catalyst for personal development. Serving over 230youth annually, the Kuumba Lynx Restorative and Transformative Justice Initiative uses a comprehensive approach to youth development and arts education by centering Transformative Justice as an organic part of all of our programming, prioritizing the active work of healing, which is key to reducing youth violence and trauma. Their Transformative (TJ) and Restorative Justice(RJ) programming is a foundational component of their HipHop Arts Continuum for at-risk, low-income Black and Brown youth. Through arts, wellness, and healing, they directly address the racial trauma of youth in our community and give youth the tools they need to avoid being perpetrators and victims of violence, to heal from racial trauma; and to be leaders in the transformation of their communities.
Alliance of the SouthEast (ASE)
The mission of the Alliance of the SouthEast (ASE) is to build the capacity of leaders, organizers, and associations that carry out community and social change. They envision a powerful grassroots base that impacts decision makers and wins real improvements in their neighborhoods. ASE is a multicultural, interfaith, intergenerational coalition of faith and community organizations, schools, youth, and businesses, all working together to address the challenges facing the neighborhoods of Southeast Chicago. The ASE Youth Leadership Council (YLC) is a leadership development and civic engagement initiative. ASE provides leadership trainings to African American &Latino youth (ages 12-18) to give them a voice in the community, engage them in positive activities, and unite youth around common priorities. By giving youth a voice and increasing their civic engagement, the YLC moves youth from withdrawing or being reactive to trauma around them (and feeling helplessness) to developing their resilience and empowering youth to proactively create their own solutions to address neighborhood issues and take ownership of their community.
New Community Outreach
New Community Outreach (NCO) is a community-based organization committed to cultivating restorative spaces for youth and the community in the Greater Bronzeville neighborhood. Serving over 175 youth annually, the Knowledge Empower Youth (KEY) program is a youth restorative justice program, using healing circles to offer students consistent safe spaces to process and heal from their lived experiences with trauma and to move forward through increased opportunities to engage in powerful ways in their community. KEY utilizes their original curriculum to intentionally guide students through circle, so they have the opportunity to process trauma that stems from racialized encounters and have time to digest experiences. They also create space to activate their power towards leadership and community engagement. Woven throughout the circle structure are opportunities for trauma care and mentoring, as students share stories, digest experiences, and cultivate their future goals and dreams as change agents.
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