Meet Your Neighbors: A Nonprofit Director Supports Families After Trauma

Things are looking up for local non-profit champion Alison Silberman. She and her husband moved from Park Slope to East 17th Street in Ditmas Park last year, and just this month she was named Director of Programs and Strategic Initiatives at Tuesday’s Children, an organization that supports children and families after traumatic loss.

“I’m excited to be here and help our communities heal from these large scale events that seem to be happening all too often,” Alison said.

Alison seems comfortable in her new role, transitioning to Tuesday’s Children from her work at an ovarian cancer research center.

“I’m taking a look at our programs, the populations we’re serving, and how to address the issues and needs of groups like first responders and military families,” she said.

Tuesday’s Children began 15 years ago by helping families in New York City impacted by 9/11, and then expanded to other groups like military families and first responders, who face traumatic loss related to global and domestic terror attacks.

“With all the things going on in the world, it seemed like a great mission and opportunity to help focus their strategy on a growing population,” Alison said.

Tuesday’s Children runs community programs like mental health services, and free events and trips for participating families.

“Family engagement events help people connect, like fishing trips and Brooklyn Cyclones games outings,” Alison said, along with a wellness program and career resource center that holds programs like the upcoming Backpacks to Briefcases, for recent college graduates transitioning into the workplace.

Tuesday’s Children reaches out to families in New York City and throughout the Tri-State area, but they’re also developing a universal program focusing on long term healing from mental and emotional trauma.

“We developed an evidence-based long term healing model that we tested in Newtown, Connecticut, after the Sandy Hook shootings. We helped build the Newtown Resiliency Center and apply this long term healing model,” Alison said.

This long term healing model has helped people from New York City to Orlando, San Bernadino, and Connecticut. “We’re the go-to organization for, what we like to say, ‘when the casseroles stop coming.'” Or, after the emergency response ends and after the media has moved on – when the true, life-altering impact of violence sets in.

Tuesday’s Children will premiere their long-term healing curriculum in September at a conference at Fordham University, the same model used to found the Resiliency Center in Newtown following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December of 2012. “It’s a resource guide that talks about our history and what we’ve learned, and a curriculum to train counselors and community members to start their own response foundation,” Alison said. Look out for their online tool kit for launch in Spring of 2017, to provide resources for community-based healing.

As far as bringing her work home to Ditmas Park, Alison said “I think that everyone in New York was impacted by 9/11, especially since it’s the 15-year anniversary. We know that these larger milestones can be triggers for people suffering from mental or emotional impact from the event.”

To learn more about Tuesdays Children or volunteer at an event, visit their website events calendar.