This episode focuses on Trauma-Informed Community Development, a framework developed by the Neighborhood Resilience Project. Based in Pittsburgh, the Orthodox ministry is dedicated to addressing community trauma. Their work is rooted in the Gospel and teaching of the Orthodox Church and inspired by the American Civil Rights Movement.

Father Paul Abernathy is the Pastor of St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church in Pittsburgh, a Priest with the Antiochian Archdiocese, the author of The Prayer of a Broken Heart: An Orthodox Christian Reflection on African American Spirituality, and the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Neighborhood Resilience Project. He is married to Presbytera Kristina Abernathy, who is the Chief Growth Officer for the project.

While working in a predominantly Black underserved community in Pittsburgh, Father Abernathy was regularly interacting with men, women, and children who had repeatedly experienced multiple forms of trauma, such as hunger, abuse, homelessness, racism, violence, and a lack of opportunity or health care. He began to ask the question: How do you heal an entire community that has been inundated with trauma for generations?

Their vision is to inspire a movement in which suffering people are raised up from the ashes of trauma in unconditional love to become empowered healers, community builders, and positive change makers. They recently hosted a community training workshop here in Sarasota.
Find out more about Father Paul and Presbytera Kristina’s work at neighborhoodresilience.org.