Experts Present at New Trauma-Informed Initiative in Rural Pennsylvania

This week, we at Lakeside Educational Network were privileged to attend the kick-off conference for the Behavior Health Alliance of Rural Pennsylvania (BHARP) at the Penn State Conference Center.

What is BHARP and why is it important?

The conference featured Dr. Sandra Bloom (speaking remotely) and other professionals in the trauma-informed movement. We met to discuss and share perspectives on the essential nature of becoming trauma-informed in order to help children and families.

We are so pleased that BHARP has selected Lakeside to be their training partner. We are excited to be a central part of one of the few rural models in the nation for trauma-informed care in a multi-county environment.  We plan to begin this June with a hybrid training model utilizing both live training and broadcast training that will be able to maintain groups on a live basis. This trainnig model allows each group to process the complex emotional issues of trauma with our trainers and one another.

Training hundreds of professionals

The exciting part of this project is that we will be delivering a four-year training process which will reach hundreds of professionals in rural Pennsylvania who will create a new environment of care and support for trauma-impacted children and adults.

It is our hope that we will be able to permeate this region like we have the Greater Philadelphia region with many professionals having the same lenses, the same language and the sense of partnership around the issues of trauma-informed care within their communities.

Personalized for each individual group

Lakeside has developed a capacity to broadcast our training to expand our geographic scope and help others learn about trauma-informed care.

Over the next few years we anticipate rapidly growing the broadcasting of our process model of trauma training. It is significant that broadcasts can be personalized for each group of participants. Because of the internet, we can consider a more extensive approach to help communities formerly out of  reach to have access to our training.

We believe models like this will be launched all over our country to provide a new trauma lens for children and families.

We are so pleased to pioneer this model with BHARP.  

We are looking forward to this new partnership with a great group of professionals who truly care for the children and families they serve within their counties and communities. We are deeply grateful to be able to share our training in another opportunity in our hope to reach everyone about trauma and trauma-informed care.

Thank you to all the leadership of BHARP and all the participating organizations who sponsored this event.  We wish BHARP all the best as together we strive for excellence in this great endeavor and partnership.

Gerry Vassar, President/CEO, Lakeside Educational Network