Vichi Jagannathan, Co-Founder

About Rural Opportunity Institute

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Mission

ROI supports youth, organizations, and communities in rural North Carolina to interrupt the cycle of generational trauma and design innovative solutions for healing & resilience.

Princeville Flag by Shari Dickens

Princeville Flag by Shari Dickens

Median household income (2008)

Heart disease hospitalization (2014)

Enslaved population (1860)

ROI’s framing questions

• What forces account for the current levels of trauma/ACEs in Edgecombe County and surrounding region?
• What forces help provide healing?

300+ community members engaged

Look for feedback loops

Loops of loops!

Loops of loops!

Our current system does not support healing from trauma because it segregates and isolates people away from opportunities for connection and healing.

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The current system is optimized to uphold historical trauma, and produce future generations of people who continue to hold the energy from trauma in their bodies.

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Finding Leverage

How might we create...

A rural community that supports people's healing from adversity by understanding history, reshaping practices, and fostering deep-rooted connections.

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Community Leverage Strategy

Long-term: people who have experienced trauma and have healed are best positioned to provide healing for others

Felicia Cofield

Pastor at World Healing Christian Center

Eulanda Thorne

Middle School Counselor at Martin Millennium Academy

Byron Hall

Teen Parent Mentor at Community Enrichment Organization

Matthew Johnson

Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office, Tarboro, NC

Yolanda Ray-Henderson

Counselor at West Edgecombe Middle School

Carlin Jordan

Officer, Tarboro Police Department

Debby Futrell

(non-voting)

Area L AHEC

Community Accountability Board

23 local leaders �have been certified as Resilience Educators, leading trainings for 13,000 people

Local Resilience Educators

We’ve reached over 13,000 members of the community since January 2020...

...while driving economic opportunities for dedicated leaders.

Knowledge-building Impact

Our Social Innovation Approach

• Provided mental health counseling to 21 students
• 5.7 counseling sessions per student
• Suspension days decreased by 28%
• Disciplinary actions decreased by 38%
• Building towards financial sustainability through Medicaid billing

Case Study: Counseling in Alternative School

• 5 pilots across schools, county jail, and juvenile detention center

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Case Study: Biofeedback Breathing

Creating space for students to experience resilience tools in their classrooms by way of Listening Circles and Reset Zones.

Other examples

Developing a staff-wide initiative that includes gratitude groups and a staff wellness space on site to promote staff wellness and recharging.

Connecting grandparents that are caregivers to children with Resilience Tools, how to use them, and what the benefits are

Supporting single-parent students as they navigate how to continue their education at ECC, while collecting data related to their needs

Southwest Edgecombe High School

Wilson DSS

Edgecombe

Community College

Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments

Where we’re headed

• Systems mapping helps visualize a complex problem, and then find ways that individuals can have an impact.
• Engaging in the process is just as important as the outcome.
• What people say and what they do often contradict. We need tools and structures to draw out the truth.
• Systems mapping removes blame and allows us to find shared truth and move forward together.

Takeaways from the Systems Mapping process

Vichi Jagannathan, Co-Founder

Thank you!

vichi@ruralopportunity.org

www.ruralopportunity.org

Appendix: Parts of the Map

Map Narration: Core Story

Generational trauma & generational poverty (from soft skills)

Coping behaviors, punishment, isolation → healthy relationships

Systems of care misdiagnosis and then apply poor fit treatments

No hope = blame, few 2nd chances, less difficult conversations

Appendix: Upstream / Downstream activity to create loops

Upstream/Downstream

The first part of systems mapping: identifying important factors and looking upstream/downstream

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End goal: find key places where there are feedback loops that make the problem way better or way worse

Upstream/Downstream

1. Brainstorm all the forces that impact this problem. Sort them into forces that make things worse (inhibitors) and forces that make things better (enablers).

2. Cluster similar factors into groups, identify themes.

Examples of themes

Mental health support

• Inability to accurately diagnose trauma / mental health needs
• Stigma against seeking care for mental health / trauma issues
• Avoidance of suggesting mental health support for individuals in trauma
• High rates of ADHD diagnosis or high prevalence of learning disabilities

Community

• Strong and effective leadership
• People in trauma make choices that could negatively impact life
• Not having difficult conversations
• Providers blame parents for their kids behavior

3. For each important theme:

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Brainstorm: what causes this to be true?

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Brainstorm: what does this cause to be true as a result?

Create loops