The Recovery and Resilience Academy will focus on education, community outreach, and research that is geared towards assisting the local community as well as Lamar University students during the pandemic and/or a natural disaster. This work will be done using a multi-disciplinary collaborative approach. We intend to expand our research efforts while also partnering with several academic programs at Lamar University and non-academic agencies to address unequal healthcare distribution and disparate prevalence of ill health in Southeast Texas. The proposed project aims to expand existing efforts already taking place by:
Building workforce resilience through trauma-responsive care provides an opportunity for first responders and other service providers who care about the safety and well-being of Southeast Texas citizens to counter the risk factors of burnout, compassion fatigue, turnover, and work-related stressors. During this presentation, an overview will be provided of how trauma impacts the brain, body, beliefs, biology and behavior. In the context of how exposure to trauma at the interpersonal, community and/or environmental levels can impact workforce settings across systems, participants will receive an overview and introduction to Trust-based Relational Intervention (TBRI) to gain knowledge that strengthens interdisciplinary connections to support a stronger Southeast Texas community. Principles and strategies of TBRI will be shared for participants to explore how to improve preparedness, communication, and disaster response within Southeast Texas by using TBRI principles. Community collaboration that has resulted from implementation of TBRI in Southeast Texas will be shared and participants will be encouraged to build on those existing efforts. Lastly, participants will learn how to access further information and resources to advance dialogue with other stakeholders on how TBRI can serve as a strategy for building a resilient community in the Gulf Coast region.