The Santa Barbara Response Network (SBRN) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that mobilizes caring volunteers with training in psychological first aid and how to provide compassionate social support in the aftermath of tragic events. This is not a counseling or mental health program, and instead, it focuses on empowering people whose resilience is being affected by trauma.
Train to become a volunteer offering support in our community.
Imagine for a moment that you are living in a community that has recently suffered injuries or loss of life to suicide or violence or natural disaster.. While you may be grateful that those closest to you were not seriously harmed, others in your community may be experiencing intense loss and distress of a potentially traumatic kind. At such a time you might want to know that there is some way in which these neighbors would receive community support.
SBRN offers Psychological First Aid (PFA) as its primary response to those who have experienced a traumatic event and request our assistance. PFA is an evidence-based method of providing culturally sensitive psychological support to those who have experienced trauma. It aims to reduce initial distress and help foster long-term adaptive coping skills needed to move toward resilience.
We have launched and are hosting an SBRN online Compassion Center through Facebook Live in Spanish and English.
This is the first time SBRN has offered a digital compassion center and we feel it will be something we can continue in the future, even as we grow out of the life-altering event of COVID-19.
To better prepare our volunteers for offering support online and via telephone, we will be holding online PFA training in English and Spanish. Utilizing Facebook Live, Instagram, and other social media platforms, we will have trained volunteers of SBRN in responding and providing support, and a warm handoff to other agencies for those in need of more support in order.
— AWARE AND PREPARE
A community partnership to strengthen Emergency and Disaster Readiness
