Brookings County Community Celebrates Resilient Community Designation
The ceremony will take place in the City Council Chambers in the Brookings City and County Government Center at 520 3rd St., Room 310.
Former Mayor and current Rep. Tim Reed, R-Brookings, will speak on the importance of the designation to the safety of children and families. Reed is currently president of the advisory board for the USD Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment (CPCM).
Brookings County State’s Attorney Dan Nelson will also make remarks during the livestreamed event, which can be viewed on YouTube.
“Resilient Communities: South Dakota” is an initiative that provides South Dakota communities with guidance and support to focus on evidence-based prevention strategies to prepare, know, prevent, respond to and sustain multi-sector efforts to address childhood maltreatment and its impacts across the lifespan.
The initiative’s framework was created by the CPCM and its partner organizations to help address factors in communities that put children at risk for abuse and neglect. It also creates an environment that is trauma-informed, so community members understand the lifetime effects of experiencing childhood adversity. The process also identifies existing resources in the community that can be used to strengthen multi-sector collaborations and prevention efforts.
“Resilient Communities allowed Brookings County advocates to work together to overcome gaps in services to provide informed primary prevention strategies to our service leaders,” said Carrie Sanderson, director of the CPCM. “Your community is stronger because of the work you’ve done to create unity.”
Led by Social NET Works, a coalition of local stakeholders with representatives from health care, behavioral health, government, nonprofits and education, the Resilient Community group meets monthly to analyze Brookings County’s current strengths that help children and families deal with and recover from traumatic experiences, aiming to mitigate long-lasting effects, referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The coalition identified gaps that could be filled through a multidisciplinary approach to resource delivery.
As part of the Resilient Communities sustainability plan, individuals, organizations and businesses have been invited to take the Brookings County Resiliency Motivator pledge. For more information about Social NET Works, the Brookings County Resiliency Motivator pledge, or the April 14 event, please email socialnetworksbrookings@gmail.com.
For more information about "Resilient Communities: South Dakota," visit sdcpcm.com/resilient-communities-south-dakota/.
The CPCM is the first organization to join local, tribal, state and federal efforts in the fight against child sexual abuse and other forms of maltreatment in South Dakota. CPCM was born out of the work of Jolene’s Law Task Force, established through SDCL 2-6-31 and its comprehensive 10-year plan to help South Dakotans know of, respond to and prevent child sexual abuse.
