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.
Date to be announced.
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.
SBRN has adopted Bienestar Latinx and the Lost Art of Love Letters under our umbrella. These organizations share a similar philosophy and focus on recovery in our community.
This is a culturally holistic approach to overall Latinx health prevention, and leadership development. We are doing this through a podcast, workshops, and creating a network of Latinx community members, hosting healing circles, and positive cultural media.
Sondra Weiss is a longtime Museum Art Educator & the founder of Lost Art of Love Letters. She engages people around the world to write creative letters on the topics of mental wellness, social justice, environmental protection & good old fashioned Love for self as well as others. She has been hired to collaborate with the UN Environment, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Ritz-Cartlon & international youth as well as museum summits.
— AWARE AND PREPARE
A community partnership to strengthen Emergency and Disaster Readiness
