EmpowerU hosted a session on Childhood Trauma on March 17, 2021 at EmpowerU Studio. We advertised that Childhood Trauma is a major, largely unaddressed issue in the State of Ohio and nationally, that one of every five children 3-17 years old experiences two or more adverse trauma events annually.
Burr Robinson, a great Patriot, led the speaking group and he was joined by Ron Hummons and also LaShanda Sugg, LPC who runs a Counseling Group called www.thelaborsoflove.com. Robinson, Hummons and Sugg have brought the issue of Childhood Trauma to the forefront of the Cincinnati Council and the State of Ohio via Resolution lr_134-0222 A Resolution to Declare a State of Emergency on Childhood Trauma in Ohio. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Tom Brinkman and Democrat Sedrick Denson. In the resolution it states the fact that more than 500,000 Ohio children reported one or more adverse childhood experiences (such as divorce, death of a parent, having a parent who served time in jail, or being a victim of violence). One additional concern with people in the audience was the addition of the words “Gender Identity” and “Sexual Orientation” in the second paragraph of the Resolution.
By working to get the State of Ohio to Declare an “Emergency for Childhood Trauma”, the group hopes to get information out to the public about how serious Trauma is and that more information might lead to action being taken.
This is just the kind of a class that we like to host at EmpowerU. Our goal with the EmpowerU program is to sponsor free classes is to Educate*Enjoy*Engage and help people get more Empowered in their lives. We want to teach new things to people and get them involved in topics and the community. Who knows if someone in the audience might be passionate about volunteering to help with Childhood Trauma in kids?
Overall, I would have to call the session pretty much of a failure. The one thing the session did accomplish is help define Childhood Trauma and at least put it on people’s radar. The problem with the session was that it highlighted to me just how polarized people are with their own races, their own hang-ups, and their own agenda.
There were a couple of people in the audience that were disrespectful to the speakers that night. To me, It had the feeling that some of the disrespect might have been raced-based or maybe it was just coming from different sides of the political aisle. At EmpowerU we have always tried to make our classes about respect. Respect for the teachers and respect for everyone in the audience is of the utmost importance.
Similarly, I was a little bit disappointed in the speakers. They seemed overly-focused on people of the African American Race, as if Trauma was only limited to black people. I don’t view race through a color spectrum and any discussion on just about anything that tries to treat people–anything other than equally– is just a non-starter for me. I was surprised that more attention was not paid to the correlation between poverty and Childhood Trauma.
Overall, after the session was over, my conclusion is that we all have a lot more progress we need to make. Not just with Childhood Trauma, but with learning to live and get along with one another. And, always, always listening and treating each other with respect…
Daniel P. Regenold, Managing Board Member
EmpowerUAmerica.org