“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
– Helen Keller
“Life is not what you alone make of it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another.”
– Yuri Kochiyama
As one of their 6 guiding principles of trauma-informed practice SAMHSA identifies collaboration as true partnering, leveling of power differences, and shared decision making, recognizing that every person has a role to play. We seek to embody a collaborative approach that is decentralized, leaderful, and rooted in grassroots and authentic community engagement. We firmly believe that true collaboration is fostered through a commitment to collective care – making the time and space to be vulnerable, to support, and to care for ourselves and for one another. The words of Yuri Kochiyama and Helen Keller remind us that just as our lives are not and cannot be the product of our individual actions, so too is our work and our vision of a trauma-informed Los Angeles collaboratively built, with community and in community.