The Self-Healing Communities Model (SHC) offers a framework and a process for bringing community members together to explore what matters most to them. Grounded in the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the community learns how patterns of experience are connected. They learn to ease stress and make choices supporting health and well-being. Together, community members begin to take hope-filled action that promotes change and strengthens support systems so that the community can better protect and nurture the next generation.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are stressful experiences that can happen to any of us before we turn 18. ACEs are not our fault; we didn’t have control over when or why they happened. These experiences can be a single event or an ongoing struggle where our safety, security, trust, or even our sense of self is threatened or violated. ACEs include witnessing violence or living with a parent with a drug or alcohol problem. Highly stressful experiences can have lasting effects on health and well-being.

We seek to hear the voices of our community members and empower them to create the change they wish to see in their neighborhoods, ultimately building the capacity of our community to envision and co-create the future. The project will also develop neighborhood and organization networks that promote collaboration across sectors and empower local leaders to think about whole systems.

We will engage the community in learning, skill building, design and implementation of ideas and will reflect on our efforts and results. Through our work together, people will have opportunities to contribute and participate. They will be encouraged to step into leadership roles, focusing on what matters to them and the community and deciding on new ways to do things.

We invite you to co-lead a community action agenda to improve the future. A series of meetings called Community Speaks will be held where you can participate in identifying our community's strengths, priorities and needs. Throughout the meetings, we will identify what matters most to you and what we can do to address priorities. We will form teams, with everyone invited to contribute according to their interests. We will also identify what other partners (organizations, government, etc.) can do to support community members and address the needs in Lompoc. We will implement the actions we learn and, together, measure success and build strong community leaders. While we invite the entire community, we are centering the voices of communities where the conditions for raising children are challenging - communities that historically don’t have visibility or a voice. It will take all of us to find solutions. We will also identify emerging community leaders who will help us lead meetings and receive training and mentoring.

Emerging leaders will work with us to lead Community Speaks meetings and other project activities. We are seeking individuals who: go above and beyond to deliver results that matter to the community seek out extra responsibilities or new skills inspire others to follow them regardless of title or role uphold the values of the organization while honoring personal values engage the world with optimism while acknowledging the reality of inequities that perpetuate harm are prepared to work for the better future that they want to see encourage others to grow and invest in those around them to accomplish their goals demonstrate a desire to lead, challenge the status quo, and accept new roles and experiences meant to guide them toward leadership attend regularly scheduled community speaks meetings can remain flexible and keep an open mind, as the work and needs may change quickly Emerging leaders, once selected, will be compensated for their contribution. If you are interested in becoming an emerging leader, please email shc@c4lompoc.org.

People who participate in the project will have the opportunity to connect and deepen relationships with other members of their neighborhood/community. Together we will share information and dialogue about patterns of experience, connected through stories and data. Community members will learn to reduce stress and make choices supporting health and well-being. Individuals will become empowered and work together to make changes they wish to see in their neighborhoods and the community as a whole.

C4 Lompoc is leading the project. LegacyWorks Group and Resilient Santa Barbara County are providing support in project management and design. The project will have a Steering Committee that will include other organizations and community members and serve to advise and support the project. As the project gets underway, we will also reach out to other organizations that wish to partner with us and participate. Please contact us at shc@c4lompoc.org if you would like to be a partner.

The Self-Healing Communities Model helps communities build their own capacity to define and solve problems. The model was first used in Washington, where leaders were trying to tackle community issues such as domestic violence, high school dropout rates, youth substance abuse, and violent crime. These issues had typically been addressed separately, but the team in Washington focused on addressing them collectively. Over 10 to 15 years in Cowlitz Co., Washington: Births to teen mothers went down by 62%, and infant mortality went down by 43%; Youth suicide and suicide attempts went down by 98%; Youth arrests for violent crime dropped by 53%; High school dropout rates decreased by 47%; Similar results were seen in other Washington counties. The Self-Healing Communities program in Washington established strong networks that promoted much greater collaboration across sectors. They empowered local community leadership, used data to decide how and where to focus efforts, and made visible changes that helped to instill a real sense of hope in communities that had given up on the prospect of a better world for their children. Laura Porter, co-founder of ACE Interface LLC, was a key partner in the Washington program. Laura came to Santa Barbara County in 2019 to share her expertise on Self-Healing Communities at the 4th Annual Bridges to Resilience Conference, where she delivered the keynote presentation to a multi-sector audience. During her stay, KIDS Network coordinated a breakfast meeting and invited Laura to speak with local leaders, including educators, social service providers, funders, health care professionals, and government officials. The group talked about possibilities and areas of need in Santa Barbara County, and from that meeting, Supervisor Joan Hartmann emerged as a champion for the Self-Healing Communities Model. In January 2022, Supervisor Hartmann became the Board representative for the City of Lompoc, and she set out to learn about the needs of the Lompoc community. She worked with a host of community service providers, led by Collective Cultures Creating Change (C4,) to develop a survey that would begin gathering information from community members. It soon became clear that the Self-Healing Communities Model could fit the Lompoc community well. KIDS Network/Resilient Santa Barbara County and Legacy Works Group were brought on to support C4 in connecting with Laura Porter and launching the Self-Healing Communities project in Lompoc.

We consider our partners in this work to be community members, service providers, subject matter experts and government. Our partners also include our generous funders: The Fund for Santa Barbara, The McCune Foundation, Towbes Foundation, Santa Barbara County, and The Bower Foundation. A core group of partners is organizing and coordinating our efforts, including C4, LegacyWorks Group and Resilient Santa Barbara County. The core partners will engage other organizations, agencies and community members during the project. All partners work together in a Self Healing Community to support culture change.

We make agreements to create integrity that includes: inclusive leadership, learning together, support for emerging skills and capabilities, right-fit solutions based on available resources, tracking and measuring the impact of those solutions and nurturing hope and efficacy.