© 2024 Peoria Public Radio
A joint service of Bradley University and Illinois State University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

OSF and PPS Team Up for Post-Trauma Recovery

OSF HealthCare and Peoria Public Schools are partnering to create a Trauma Recovery Center at Trewyn School next year. The center is designed to offer victims of violent crimes and other extreme situations wrap-around services to help them survive and prosper post-trauma.

The Trauma Recovery Center will serve 80 to 100 children and families primarily in the 61605 zip code, which is considered one of the poorest in the state.

State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth championed the legislation that makes the Trauma Recovery Center possible. The legislation took two years to negotiate and become law. She says she visited a center in California and knew the state needed the ability to create such places and Peoria needed one. 

“I saw first hand, people who had been harmed in some of the worst possible ways. But because of the supports they were able to receive through the trauma recovery center not only where they able to survive but, they began to thrive and became beacons of light to other survivors and it became contagious,” Gordon-Booth said. 

The center is being funded with a $1.1 million federal matching grant administered through the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority. OSF is providing the 20 percent match. 

Sister Judith Ann Duvall is the Chairperson of OSF. She says children who’ve experienced trauma deserve community support in the way the center will offer, “help them unpack what is not good and help them to grow and mature and be happy and flourish, and help them repack it with things that will make their life wonderful and that they can be a part of our society in a healthy and a wholesome way.” 

The grant that’s funding the center has a three-year renewal option. About a dozen area community services agencies are signed on to support the TRC.