Baltimore City will put $1.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds toward trauma informed care programming.
According to WYPR, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement will use $900,000 toward the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act, which requires trauma informed care training for City officials and establishes the Baltimore City Trauma Informed Care Task Force. Trauma informed care is defined as, “a healthcare methodology that attempts to heal trauma and provide culturally-competent service.” Another $510,000 will go toward funding the task force in developing “basic community training.”
Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott is quoted in the WYPR article as having said:
“Every single time that we lose a resident in Baltimore to violence, I think of the impact that those horrific tragedies have on our communities,” [said Mayor Scott]. “This is very deep and very real harm that impacts our residents, especially our young people, for the rest of their lives.”
Under the Healing City Act, Baltimore City has undertaken a number of initiatives aimed at reaching its vulnerable communities including “strategies to bring more Black social workers” to the City and a pilot in the City’s Highlandtown neighborhood to provide health and social services.