Our Collective for Healthy Communities (CHC) program is excited to continue providing direct services to members of the New Orleans community. Over the past few years, CHC has partnered with various groups in New Orleans to facilitate group and individual mental health services. One of our current partners is Hotel Hope, “a nonprofit, interfaith organization that provides housing to women and their children while guiding them to self-sufficiency and self-empowerment through intensive case management in a safe and loving atmosphere.”

In the summer of 2019, Hotel Hope was just getting settled into a new space in Central City. To increase collaborative efforts and strengthen community support, CHC was invited in as a resource to Hotel Hope’s clients. A mutual agreement was made between staff from both organizations that through the transitionary period for resident mothers that enter Hotel Hope, especially, offering mental health and wellness supports is just as significant as physical stabilization and security supports. Since the early fall, the CHC social work team has been Thursday afternoon regulars at Hotel Hope, providing five-week cycles of psycho-educational groups for the mothers and caregivers, while spending some time interacting with the children and family unit as a whole.

In 2020, our social work team has returned to work with the mothers and caregivers on-site at the shelter. The recent small, yet mighty group of women, have a collective air of contemplative, nurturing, supportive, and focused spirits. During week one, a facilitated conversation about stress and experiences of trauma led to a few mothers sharing personal stories of challenges and barriers they faced, as well as fateful opportunities, like one mother’s journey to find her son an extracurricular activity he loves. Throughout the group sessions, a common theme emerged; many women spoke about cultivating strength from their pasts and emphasized resilience in their present, all with a fervent commitment to welcome change and upward growth for their and their children’s futures. In the weeks ahead we look forward to learning more with the mothers, and to our aligned work with Hotel Hope.

Along with our work at Hotel Hope, the CHC team has continued to work toward making New Orleans a more trauma-informed city. In January 2020 CHC, in collaboration with the South Central AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC), trained a group of nurses in the Sexual Assault Nurses Examiner (SANE) Program. The training is part of Trauma Informed-NOLA, a project facilitated by CHC that provides psycho-educational workshops on the impact of individual and community trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences, and explores self- and community-care and resilience. During the SANE workshop, participants expressed interest in learning the most trauma-informed approaches to respond to trauma across medical settings, especially when there is limited capacity and resources in a facility. There was also an emphasis on avoiding re-traumatization while doing work with those affected by trauma, which entails recognizing where our boundaries are in our work and awareness of possible burnout.

For more information on CHC and the work they do in New Orleans, please contact Christina Illarmo cillarmo@iwesnola.org.

If you would like to support the work of Hotel Hope you can consider becoming a partner on their upcoming Crescent City Classic running team. Hotel Hope has been selected as a 2020 Official Charity Partner for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Crescent City Classic 10k’s “Run For It” Program! The organization is recruiting charity runners/walkers, who commit to raise a minimum of $200 by race day, with all of the money raised to be donated directly to and benefit Hotel Hope. Registration for the race can be found here and additional information on Hotel Hope can be found here.