In her TED Talk, Dr. Allison Jackson reminds of the importance of connecting to those dealing with trauma. Grassroots organizations offer a platform and a space for this silence breaking and connection.

After some research, I realized that very few grassroots organizations deal directly with the issue of urban trauma in schools or even, more broadly, with the issue of urban trauma in general. Instead, I found organizations that address specific urban traumas. While the range of issues that we could call urban traumas is wide, I limited myself to the traumas that Woodbridge et al. considered in their study.

Concerned community members founded most of these grassroots organizations, but a few are powered by youth (BAY-Peace and REEP) and a couple are coalitions (People’s Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability and The North Brooklyn Coalition against Family Violence).

Given the diverse focuses of these ten organizations, each comes with a unique set of challenges, strategies, approaches, demographics, and stories. Even so, I was able to discern some common threads. All of the organizations have an education component, although the populations that they target vary.

Some focus on educating decision-makers, policymakers, and companies, the people that hold the money and power. For instance, Collective Action for Safe Spaces educates decision-makers about sexual harassment and publicizes personal testimony in an effort to spur more research and policy change on the matter.

Other organizations educate the victims of the trauma event. For example, VOCAL-NY’s POWER Academy teaches victims of HIV/AIDs about campaign strategy, coalition building, action planning, and other skills that allow them to participate in policymaking.

Other grassroots groups focus on educating community members. Sarah’s Inn, for instance, annually educates over 3,000 middle and high school students on violence prevention in its Together Strong Project and certifies individuals to be volunteer advocates.

Let’s look at a few other similarities. Many of these organizations provide support, often via counseling or advocacy, to trauma victims. As an illustration, Hope For Miami operates Coordinated Care Centers which offer crisis support and counseling to children of inmates. Lastly, a few of the groups, namely BAY-Peace and People’s Justice for Community Control and Police Justice, use art as a form of resistance.