Collective Action for Addressing Trauma and Stress (Project CAATS)
Collective Action for Addressing Trauma and Stress (Project CAATS)
Middle and high schoolers, and their families.
Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
Engage community members in therapy and skill building while uniting local organizations in sharing resources to help reduce violence and trauma in the community.
Residents in high-risk communities wake up to trauma every day. Trauma from financial instability, poor quality of health care, criminal and violence victimization, and systemic prejudice and racism.
Collective Action for Addressing Trauma and Stress (Project CAATS) is a community coalition providing direct services to high-crime, high-violence, and high-poverty communities which have experienced and are experiencing various types of trauma.
The approach is multi-level: (1) by engaging youth and families in therapy, teaching them coping skills, and providing them training on how traumatic experiences impact an individual’s mental health and well-being and how to overcome it; and (2) by using a community coalition model to address identified, unique needs by optimizing and leveraging resources amongst various providers from 12 sectors of the community.
CAATS was created to raise awareness about collective trauma, strengthen community healing, and encourage honest conversations surrounding stress, violence exposure, grief, emotional wellness, and resilience throughout South Florida communities.
We believe healing happens best when communities are connected to trusted relationships, safe spaces, positive alternatives, and holistic support systems. CAATS is based on the belief that “healed people, heal people!” Together we can provide our youth and families with an opportunity to be heard and help our communities heal.
Please take a look at our storybook “What We Carry Together – A South Florida Story About Stress, Survival, and Healing”.
CAATS aims to address “collective trauma”, the term used to describe when a traumatic occurrence happens to an entire group of people and impacts them in much the same way. It is designed to meet communities where they are in identifying and addressing trauma such as mass shootings, systemic racism, and the COVID-19 pandemic.