Trauma Informed Community Building: Transforming the way we rebuild public housing and build community resilience in trauma impacted neighborhoods

San Francisco’s HOPE SF initiative is a unique effort to transform the city’s most degraded public housing sites plagued by severe health and social inequities into thriving communities. BRIDGE Housing has worked collaboratively with residents of Potrero Terrace and Annex, one of the City’s largest public housing sites, over the past 3 years to create plans to build new housing while at the same time engaging in community building activities. Through a partnership with residents and the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University, BRIDGE has developed a new model for community building that moves beyond traditional programs and activities for public housing residents to one that acknowledges the ongoing stress and trauma pervasive in the community and focuses on strengthening social cohesion and supporting community leadership. Trauma Informed Community Building (TICB) aims to enhance residents’ capacity for participation in community change process; promotes social cohesion, reinforces community supports and resiliency; and, counteracts negative aspects of the community reaction to trauma. In the proposed session, the co-authors will present the TICB model for community building in public housing and other communities facing poverty, ongoing violence, isolation and limited resources. We will describe its theoretical basis, offer the audience a handout of its key strategies and principles, and share stories from our experience in Potrero Hill public housing that will help audience members relate the new model to their own community building contexts.