In That Number is Back and Ready for Action

January 31, 2020 Iman Shervington

Since 2016, our In That Number (ITN) campaign has provided us with a platform to share narratives that illustrate the impacts of trauma on youth throughout New Orleans. That same year, IWES staff members Lisa Richardson and Iman Shervington formed a team with writer Jarvis DeBerry in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Leadership Program to build a Culture of Health in New Orleans. To achieve that goal, in 2018 the team decided to create a new phase of the ITN campaign, but instead of continuing the “public will” model of providing information to make the public aware of the issue, we decided to convert it to a social marketing campaign and include a Call To Action (CTA) so that folks can take action to create the landscape they want to see in particular sectors of the city.

In 2018 and 2019 we conducted formative research on the individual, group and partnership levels to determine: a) what sectors to prioritize; b) how/why to make each sector more trauma-informed; and c) possible CTAs for each sector. The sectors we chose to focus on are:

Criminal (Juvenile) Justice
Education
Healthcare/Hospitals

To determine our CTA in the first two sectors, we partnered with The Welcoming Project and Black Education for New Orleans (BE NOLA) to hear from youth that have been through the juvenile justice system and educators to gain insight on how to transform these systems to be more compassionate, restorative, and respectful of the humanity of our young people. In the healthcare/hospital sector we are focusing on increasing trauma-informed practices in the maternal and child health arena, and we are currently learning from mothers, fathers and providers (from lactation consultants to doulas to OB/GYNs) to determine the best route.

Outside of formative research, in 2019 we also worked with folks that either form a part of or work with our partner organizations, to share their narratives and insight in the relaunch of the campaign. Eleven unique narratives have been created and quotes have been shared on social media and by billboards around the city (locations listed below) that guide you to the In That Number website. We are proud to announce that we officially relaunched the campaign this January 2020 with the first six billboards and the release of our online narratives!

To kick off the campaign, in January we highlighted stories from educators around our city who work tirelessly to increase equity and compassion in our education system. As Rashida Govan said,

“Love and compassion have to be at the heart of this work.”

However, sometimes, it is not and instead, schools can end up contributing to or reinforcing some of the trauma our young people carry. But, as you’ll read, there are many passionate leaders in the system that want to adapt and enhance it and make it more liberatory for our students. To that end, our Call to Action is to ensure that all New Orleans schools have mental health providers that receive ongoing, culturally competent trauma-informed training to provide the best level of service and care to the youth they encounter and encourage a culture of health on their campuses.

As mentioned above, we also partnered with the Welcoming Project and worked particularly with five Fellows in their program to create their narratives and billboards. In February you'll be able to read the stories online and see the billboards throughout New Orleans. Through their narratives you can see the impact on a young person’s life that juvenile incarceration can have, and how it affects their mental/emotional well-being as well as their future prospects and trajectories. In this sector, our focus is on prevention as we attempt to impact the systems and practices that lead up to a young person’s interaction with the system. Our mantra is “Sad, Not Bad,” and we truly believe that if we operate from that mindset and interrogate the root causes of young people’s actions, we can provide adequate services and support that are compassionate and restorative and recognize the impacts of trauma, instead of seeing incarceration as an option.

At core, without love and compassion we cannot adequately support our youth. In that spirit, we want to take a moment to thank everyone that has contributed to the campaign through participation in a charrette, focus group, survey, dinner, interview or any other aspect of it and we appreciate the wisdom and direction you have provided. We encourage everyone to read the narratives and share them far and wide, and below we have included information about the folks that are being highlighted in the campaign as well as their narrative/billboard information, if it has been made available.

For any questions or media inquiries about the In That Number campaign’s relaunch or IWES’ participation in the Culture of Health Leaders program, please contact Iman Shervington at iman@iwesnola.org.

Education Sector
Rashida Govan | Founder/Executive Director of Project Butterfly New Orleans, Executive Director of New Orleans Youth Alliance