Empowering Children of Pine Ridge

Children on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota are dying. The Reservation, (home to the Lakota Sioux people), is one of the poorest communities in the United States, severely lacking in adequate resources and support.  Life on the reservation is equitable to that of a third world nation, where around 33% of the homes are still without basic necessities like running water, sewage and an adequate food supply.  On the Reservation, teen suicide has reached a rate 150% higher than our national average for that age group.
Kids on the reservation are struggling with severe socioeconomic strain (unemployment reaching rates of 85%), few community resources, and rates of abuse and trauma as high as 12 times our national average.

I have spent my career working with trauma survivors as as a counselor, case manager, educator and now a public speaker and Empowerment Coach. I have developed a Trauma-Normal Program designed to help victims understand and grow from their traumatic experiences, providing them the emotional tools they need to once again become confident and progressive in their lives. When a person is stuck in their trauma, they become stuck in their life, making progression a near impossible feat to accomplish.

Today I am asking for your help. I hope to raise enough funds to provide for a three week driving excursion this summer, (July 25th - August 12th), to travel out to the Reservation from my home in Pennsylvania.  I plan to be on the Reservation by July 30th, with my son as my assistant, to begin a week long voluntary training in Trauma-Normal, including topics in trauma processing, anxiety control, self-advocacy, depression management, positive and productive coping, peer support, and suicide prevention.  I will be donating three weeks of my time and skills, but I need your help to provide for the travel, lodging, meals and printed program materials.

My program is designed to be easily understood by lay people and professionals alike. My dream is to provide and teach the materials of my Trauma-Normal Program to representatives from the 8 districts on the Reservation. It will then be up to the representatives to combine my concepts with their cultural beliefs as they see fit, so as to develop self-sustaining, volunteer based community support groups on the Reservation. The goal is to be able to provide teens in crisis and trauma survivors access to the skills they need to become empowered in their own lives and to decrease instances of suicide attempts and generational abuse.  I ask for your assistance to be able to provide the tools to aid a community in helping and inspiring itself.
 
I thank you in advance for your generosity and compassion in helping to bring some hope to the hearts of our children from the Nations First People.

Peace and Blessings,

Kimberly Ross London