On February 20, 2019,  the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative hosted Andrea Ortez of Partnership for Resilience for this free webinar to discuss how organizers, educators, and clinicians can utilize community partnerships to provide trauma-informed support to both teachers and students. Partnership for Resilience, originally known as the “Southland Education and Health Initiative,” works to increase the capacity of teachers, administrators, and health care professionals by establishing meaningful and impactful partnerships between professionals across sectors to improve the lives of students in Illinois schools impacted by ACEs.

The Partnership works to bring leaders together to address three challenges: access to primary care and wellness, behavioral health and trauma, and family and community engagement. These collaborations include Healthcare Teams which work to increase access and utilization of medical homes for students in the south Chicago suburbs and Resilience Teams to support the creation of trauma-sensitive schools in suburban Chicago.

Ortez discussed the early lessons of the Partnership and the types of relationships that practitioners, educators, and advocates must foster together to ensure the needs of the whole child are met.

Andrea Ortez is the Southland Partnership Organizer with the Partnership for Resilience, an organization that works to transform education, health care, and community organizations by integrating trauma-sensitive, family-focused systems of change.

Prior to joining the Partnership for Resilience, Ms. Ortez worked on the southwest side of Chicago with the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP). As the Education Director for SWOP, she led in the implementation of youth organizing and programming for the organization, worked with 15 local schools and directed the Statewide Parent Mentor Program, a program model to increase parent engagement within public schools across the state of Illinois. Ms. Ortez graduated with a B.A in History from Loyola University Chicago.