Resilient Winona County is a collaborative coalition of more than 40 organizations and 200 individuals working to build a resilient, trauma-informed community. The group’s work is focused on healing and addressing the causes of individual and community trauma through education, advocacy, and elevating voices.
Resilient Winona County’s vision is of a county where all people, especially those who have suffered from or are currently suffering from trauma, are supported, connected, valued, healed and heard.
The group includes teachers, counselors, parents, business owners, social service and nonprofit organization directors, community leaders, government officials, and many others. The group is organized into a leadership team that guides the overall work, and four action teams — Education, Communications, Events, and Sustainability — focused on specific projects and tasks.
Resilient Winona County began several years ago as the Winona ACEs Initiative, led by Ruth Charles from the Winona State University social work department. The group was driven by a small group of passionate and committed educators, counselors, and others looking for ways to raise awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and proactively address the lifelong challenges that ACEs and trauma can cause.
The group focused on education and outreach, giving more than 200 presentations to diverse populations and organizations and having a presence at public events across the community. Projects included multiple screenings of the films “Paper Tiger” and “Resilience” including at the Frozen River Film Festival, leading professional development workshops for educators, hosting community conversations to identify ways of creating , and more.
In fall 2019, the group rebranded as Resilient Winona County, with the intention of moving above ACEs science to raise awareness and advocate for change around root causes of both individual and community traumas, with issues ranging from abuse and addiction to affordable housing and discrimination.