AUSTIN, Texas — The African American Youth Harvest Foundation celebrated the opening of their new Trauma Recovery Center in Austin Wednesday morning.
According to City of Austin leaders, the center is the first of its kind in the state of Texas.
“This is truly a historical day,” said Dr. Calvin Kelly, the clinical director for the African American Youth Harvest Foundation
Texas is now one of only 12 states in the U.S. to have a center with this model – one that aims to help victims of crime and their families.
“That's the whole point of trauma recovery centers, is to break that cycle of harm that comes from violence and to help people put their lives back together,” Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea said.
It helps people like Clarence Watson, the coordinator for the Austin chapter of the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice and a survivor of crime himself.
“If I had access to this, to these resources during my victimization of gun violence and witness of domestic violence and sexual assault and homelessness, the pain I experienced would have ended a long time ago,” Watson said.
City leaders say this evidence-based approach to survivor care will also help the community.
"What we have seen from other cities who have a trauma recovery center is a reduced rate of homelessness, a reduced rate of victimization,” Austin City Councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) said.
The City of Austin and Travis County partnered with the African American Youth Harvest Foundation to provide this comprehensive support to survivors at no cost. They each put in $1 million to run the recovery center for the next two years.
Available services include therapy, crisis intervention and legal help.
"This is about providing services to survivors after they leave the incident, after they leave the hospital,” Fuentes said. “What type of care are they receiving? What services do they get? Now we can point them to the trauma recovery center."
There are currently about 14 case managers at the center, but 10 more are expected to be hired as they become fully staffed.
There’s an abundance of other resources the African American Youth Harvest Foundation has onsite in the building. There are over 30 nonprofits providing free services to help these survivors.
“All the time, when people come for help, they don't just have one need, they have multiple needs,” said Bini Coleman, COO of the African American Youth Harvest Foundation. “They need health insurance, they need a job, they need housing, they need food supplies.”
Ebonie Trice with the African American Youth Harvest Foundation said having all the resources in one location will be beneficial to these survivors.
“The one stop shop method is so great because there are so many barriers that we have already have here in Austin,” Trice said. “As Austin continues to grow, traffic is growing, housing is growing, and so people are having to take different measures to get to different resources, which creates a bigger barrier.”
You can read more about the National Trauma Recovery Center Model on the National Alliance of Trauma Recovery Center’s website.