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Our RCORP-Rural Center of Excellence on Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Prevention is partnering with rural communities in Western New York to identify and reduce the impact of childhood trauma and—through this trauma-informed approach—help prevent substance use and SUD.

The Growing Resilience pilot project aims to support rural community efforts to promote child and family well-being and improve capacity for trauma-informed SUD prevention and early intervention. As our project team works with communities in Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Steuben counties, we are focused on listening, responding to each community’s unique strengths and priorities, and collaborating to address local needs and challenges.

We are applying the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) model,¹ where building equitable partnership and collaboration is central to all efforts. This involves commitment to shared learning and decision-making, collaboration that benefits all partners, and capacity-building to ensure sustainability. It also means learning from the community about current efforts and priorities and teaming up to apply best practices with attention to long-term considerations. 

“We prefer to call it Community-Based Partner Research,” says Allison Stiles, PhD, co-principal investigator on the project team specializing in family engagement and integrated behavioral health. “It’s not just participation by the community or outreach for research purposes but a genuine partnership. We ask the community who should be involved and build on those connections. We ask how trauma and SUD have impacted their youth and work together to raise awareness and reduce risk. We’ll learn about their systems of care—all they are doing to lessen the impact trauma has on children and SUD—and, together, develop interventions specific to that community.”

Experiencing trauma early in life is a significant risk factor for developing SUD. More than 70% of adolescents receiving SUD treatment report having experienced trauma.² About 64% of adults in the U.S., moreover, report experiencing at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) before age 18, and 17% report experiencing four or more by that age.³ 

While we know that ACEs and the stress they cause can be harmful to children’s development and long-term health,⁴ each community’s experiences and needs are unique. Rural communities’ voices are needed to inform and guide the application of trauma-informed best practices on a local level.

An important step is inviting potential partners—schools, youth and families, health care providers, social service agencies, SUD treatment organizations, community leaders, and others working with young people—to take part and ensuring wide community input. Our Growing Resilience team has established a Community Action Board for shared project design and decision-making, with members receiving a small stipend for their expertise and action. We have begun holding a series of World Café gatherings, a trauma-informed method to engage community members in dialogues about SUD prevention and action.

We welcome community guidance on how best to involve people in meaningful ways. Through engagement so far, we have already learned a great deal from communities, including about the real need for trauma-informed care tailored to the unique needs of youth and families in the region.

“Trauma can be considered one of the most widespread connectors of the human experience among individuals. By centering our approaches to community engagement around the principals of trauma-informed care—safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment—we can increase opportunities where our shared experiences can be leveraged into a catalyst for growth for our communities and those who live in them,” says Jonah Crump, trauma-informed communities coordinator at Ardent Solutions, who coordinates the Trauma-Informed Communities Throughout Allegany County coalition. 

“If we are not considering trauma-informed care at the base of our community interactions, then not only are we missing out on chances for positive change, but we could be neglecting large portions of lived experience of the people we aim to support,” Crump notes. 

Another defining aspect of the CBPR approach is that the specific best practices for implementation through the project are open-ended: they will be determined in collaboration with the community. 

“We will be flexible and responsive,” says Melissa Heatly, PhD, co-principal investigator specializing in school-based mental health initiatives. “Our goal is to develop capacity for trauma-informed prevention and early intervention for youth at risk of developing SUD that the community needs and wants, and can sustain. Community partners will copilot the project every step of the way. And we look forward to sharing what we learn widely.” 

Our Team

Melissa Heatly, PhD: Principal Investigator (PI) Specializing in School Based Mental Health Initiatives

Allison Stiles, PhD: PI Specializing in Family Engagement and Integrated Primary Care

Kenya Malcolm, PhD, IECMH-E®: PI Specializing in Early Childhood and Family-Focused Care

Linda Alpert-Gillis, PhD: Senior Advisor Specializing in Innovation in Child Mental Health Service Delivery

Chris Cretelle, MBA, PMP: Project Manager

Laura Perrone, PhD: Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow, Child and Adolescent Track