D14 Town Hall Feb 10th - Healing City Baltimore

Our District 14 Virtual Town Hall last week was about the Healing City movement. My guests were Councilman Zeke Cohen, Dr. Melissa Buckley and A’niya Taylor. Here is the full video.

The movement comes from the recognition that many people have experienced some sort of trauma, and that we need to change our policies, our spaces, and how we approach people with that recognition. The movement includes working to “Sit in your Trauma” as Ms. Taylor put it, and also work to overcome it.

This is also about the science. When someone suffers a trauma, the brain is altered, and so your response to various every day or unordinary events/things becomes different. But the brain can be healed. It is not only up to the individual, but up to society to be a part of that healing process, and not to continue to traumatize our people.

Councilman Cohen sponsored the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act, which formed a task force to look at trauma informed response and policies. It also requires city agencies to get trained in trauma informed response. The City Council recently went through this training and it was powerful and intense.

Baltimore is the first city in the US to move in this direction. What comes from it depends on how we focus the work, allow for healing, and reframe our thinking.