An emergency-room-based program that helps city youth break free from cycles of violence has been awarded a $446,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The Healing Hurt People program in Drexel’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice is designed to help young victims of violence heal from the emotional trauma they are coping with alongside their physical injuries. Healing Hurt People seeks to intervene in emergency departments right after injuries are suffered by addressing the trauma of violent injury, as well as the stress of these young people’s day-to-day lives.
John Rich, professor of health management and policy in the Dornsife School of Public Health, and Ted Corbin, associate professor of emergency medicine in the College of Medicine, secured the grant, which will support the training and hiring of new community health worker peers, and expand the program’s focus on culturally responsive healing practices, including storytelling. Additionally, the two-year grant will facilitate work with Kenneth Hardy, a professor in Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions who focuses on healing from racial trauma and oppression.
Healing Hurt People was founded by Corbin in 2007 at Hahnemann University Hospital’s Emergency Department and has since spread to trauma centers across Philadelphia and across the country. Since its founding, the program has served 1,800 people.