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Organizational Capacity Building and Collaboration

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The Capacity Building and Training Initiative (CBTI) partners with City and community programs to enhance service quality and strengthen collaboration. This includes two federally-funded initiatives:

  • the Boston Youth Resiliency and Recovery Collaborative (BYRRC), and
  • Boston PREVAYL (Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives). 

Building Trauma-Informed and Equitable Organizations

CBTI's work builds the capacity of organizations that serve individuals and families. The goal is to develop practices, programs and policies. These will be equitable, trauma-informed and resiliency-building.

'Building the House': A Model for Trauma-Informed and Equitable Organizations

Many organizations hope to strengthen their work through training alone. However, true organizational change requires a multifaceted, comprehensive process. We compare this process to building a house.

1) The Foundation: training is critical as the foundation of the house. All staff and leadership need shared language and skills. It is a key first step in becoming more trauma-informed and equitable.

However, building a stable house requires more than the foundation. It is necessary to go beyond training to ensure that every domain of an organization’s work is trauma-informed and equitable.

2) The Walls: A house also needs sturdy "walls". an equitable and trauma-informed approach should be explicitly applied to programs poilicies and climate.

3) The Roof: Being trauma-informed and equitable is an ongoing process. It requires reflection and enhancement, not a checklist with an end date. This process is like the roof of the house. It sustains the internal well-being and ensures the organization can weather challenges.

Historically, CBTI engaged partners one-on-one in organizational change activities. Recently, we shifted to a Learning Collaborative model. This model brings together multiple agencies over a period of time. They identify, develop and sustain changes and connect and support one another.

We are excited to continue to strengthen and expand this element of our programming via our two federally-funded initiatives: PREVAYL and BYRRC.

Boston Youth Resiliency and Recovery Collaborative and Boston PREVAYL

CBTI and the Office of Recovery Services co-chair the Boston Youth Resiliency and Recovery Collaborative (BYRRC). BYRRC focuses on bringing together youth- and family-serving organizations to: 

  • Learn and engage in dialogue: building shared language and collective knowledge around substance use and violence prevention 

  • Inform City initiatives: opportunities to provide feedback on violence prevention and substance use prevention programming and priorities  

  • Connect: with fellow programs serving youth and families in Boston  

Since 2019, BYRRC has:

  • informed the distribution of over $300,000 in funding to community partners and residents
  • held workshops on topics, such as youth mental health, vicarious trauma, and substance use disorders, and
  • determined programming priorities, including initiatives to promote the retention of Black and Latinx mental health providers and youth peer-led prevention education. 

Boston PREVAYL (Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives) focuses on creating a full spectrum collaborative, trauma-informed, and equitable approach among youth workers and the communities they serve. The goal is to address and reduce the different types of violence affecting adolescent and young adults.

This includes strategies to promote protective youth environments and healthy gender norms via learning collaboratives, violence prevention strategic planning, and innovative social marketing campaigns. 

PREVAYL is a five-year grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a partnership between CBTI and Start Strong a fellow program within the Division of Violence Prevention. Start Strong focuses on promoting healthy teen relationships and preventing teen dating violence.

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