The Alliance for Greater Works, in Grand Prairie, Texas, has announced a $1 million gift from the Lilly Endowment to help churches serving marginalized communities across Texas respond to trauma experienced by youth and adults and help them cope with recurring events.

Part of the endowment's Thriving Congregations Initiative, the Resilient Church Collective: A Trauma-Informed Community Network will work with fifty churches over the next five years to tackle injustice proactively, including the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on low-income and marginalized communities, intergenerational trauma, police violence, and mass shootings. To that end, participating congregations will receive an assessment of their current level of healing-centered engagement; education and capacity-building assistance; sub-grants in support of healing-centered goals; access to a pastoral support network; online crisis group training; and access to the Healing Youth Alliance 3.0 curriculum. The first cohort of churches participating in the initiative will be announced in late September.

"Alliance and our partner congregations are prepared to mobilize in response to the trauma experienced by youth and adults as they seek to cope with recurring devastating events such as the current crisis concerning COVID-19, intergenerational trauma, and community violence as a result of police brutality or mass shootings," said Alliance founding president and CEO Sherrye Willis. "One issue at the forefront of our work concerns long-standing barriers to culturally congruent, integrative faith and mental health services and resources for African-American youth and adults. Alliance and our partner congregations believe healing-centered engagement is the most effective approach to helping African-American youth and adults recover from trauma."