Becker County Energize, a movement that is encouraging people in the community to come together to make a positive and healthy difference in community members' lives, received a $3,000 donation from Stomp That Stigma this week.
Karen Crabtree of Becker County Energize explained that the donation will go toward offering trauma-sensitive trainings in the community.
"We're targeting anyone that works with youth, particularly those in the schools," she explained. "The Boys and Girls Club of Detroit Lakes and Perham has trained their staff, teachers have attended and the school districts are looking out to offer it to their staff. But it's also for foster parents, youth pastors and anyone else who works with youth."
The trainings are designed to help community members understand how to work with children who have experienced trauma.
"When kids and adults deal with trauma, they display that through negative behaviors and we keep hearing that we have more and more trouble with kids' behaviors," Crabtree said. "You don't treat trauma the same way as you would treat other things, so it's really important for people to understand how to work with kids who have experienced trauma. We want people to understand why kids are showing these behaviors--how to recognize these behaviors, how to cope with them and how to help the kids."
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Jessica Ekholm, president of Stomp That Stigma's board, explained that the donation money came from Stomp That Stigma participants and local businesses.
"A big part of our donation came from someone who attended Stomp That Stigma, Dave, and his wife," she said. "They donated $950 that they took in memory of his mother--which they took in lieu of flowers after she passed away--and that was really important to them."
Crabtree said that the sub-committee in charge of the trauma-sensitive trainings has already hosted three successful trainings and plans to host about three more trainings. Overall, Ekholm added, there's one goal at the heart of it all:
"Together," she said, "we can make a different."
