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The year 2020 was devasting — particularly to African-Americans and other people of color. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted major racial and ethnic health disparities. As the coronavirus spread, tragedy of a different kind struck: the killings of unarmed Black people at the hands of police.
We feel these traumas individually — and we feel them collectively as a community.
As has been the case for centuries, many of us are turning to our houses of worship for solace, guidance, and healing.
Church leaders need guidance, too, as they help congregants process and heal from these recurring devastating events.
A new initiative called the Resilient Church Collective aims to do just that — equip and mobilize churches in Texas to respond to the crises their congregants are facing.
Made possible by a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the Collective will focus on churches serving African-Americans and other people of color, guiding the leaders of these churches through a framework of trauma-informed healing.
If you lead an eligible church and are interested in participating, we invite you to read these FAQs and submit an application.


Commonly Asked Questions
It is a statewide initiative in Texas designed to help leaders of churches serving African-Americans and other people of color through trauma-informed healing. The collective is an initiative of Alliance for Greater WorksTM.
To help churches as they respond to youth and adults who are coping with devastating traumas.
Eligible churches are:
- Serving predominately African-Americans and people of color
- Committed to serving the community outside its four walls
- Interested in tackling injustices such as:
- COVID-19 exposure
- Intergenerational trauma
- Police violence in marginalized communities
- Mass shootings affecting youth and adult congregants
The Resilient Church Collective will be delivered to two cohorts of 25 congregations (for a total of 50 congregations).
- The first cohort will be active from 2022-2024
- The second will be active in 2023-2025
Participating congregations will receive:
(a) a trauma-informed assessment of their current level of healing-centered engagement
(b) trauma-informed and healing-centered education and capacity-building services
(c) small sub-grants to support their congregations’ healing-centered goals
(d) twice-yearly Congregational Leadership Gatherings
(e) a pastoral support network
(f) special training to lead online crisis care groups
(g) access to the Healing Youth Alliance 3.0 curriculum
Trauma-informed healing “broadly refers to a set of principles that guide and direct how we view the impact of severe harm on young people’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Trauma-informed care encourages support and treatment to the whole person, rather than focusing on only treating individual symptoms or specific behaviors,” says Shawn A. Ginwright, Ph.D., a Professor of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University and author.
Please note that submitting an application does not guarantee acceptance into the Collective. You may submit an application online.
Applications must be submitted by October 15, 2021.
Alliance for Greater Works will notify those who have been accepted by October 31, 2021. The program will begin in January 2022.
Please email resilient@allancetx.org
The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement
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