Trauma and violence have become an epidemic–not just in East St. Louis but across the country. COVID has not yet dissipated and this year has proven to be yet another challenging year. Despite that, we preserved and made great strides in our youth programming while helping students and families who have experienced trauma. As we move into next year, we plan to be more strategic in working with students and families around creating safe, supportive environments and new learning and growth opportunities for all while still providing crisis and trauma support. Though we are doing an admirable job giving sustainable trauma-informed support, we must do more–together and we look forward to building more partnerships next year!