About Us

Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, with a population of 81,915 [2020]. Deerfield Beach is a diverse community that has experienced significant loss through several student and staff suicides at Deerfield Beach High School. Deerfield Beach High School is close to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas (MSD). As a result of connections that youth share across both schools, the Deerfield Beach youth and families continue to experience trauma as an effect of the MSD shooting. Further, residents reported that post MSD, the community outpouring was immense. Yet, after several suicides in Deerfield Beach, there is minimal/ineffective support from the behavioral health system of care and other stakeholders. Although there have been attempts to engage the Deerfield Beach community into formal mental health supports, some youth and families distrust traditional therapeutic services and report feeling stigma when seeking assistance. Deerfield Beach youth need support to heal and improve their mental health and well-being. While mental health and wellness are primary concerns, the impact of community trauma, systemic racism and economic and environmental concerns are critical foundational concerns.

Communities often address these concerns uniquely and independently. The goal of this effort is the creation of a resident-led funding approach designed to solve the community's most complex health and quality of life issues, neighborhood by neighborhood. “Collective impact” describes an intentional way of working together and sharing information for the purpose of solving a complex problem. Proponents of collective impact believe that the approach is more likely to solve complex problems than if a single nonprofit were to approach the same problem(s) on its own.

The pillars of this effort include:

• A system of care is a spectrum of effective, community-based services and supports for children and youth / families with or at risk for mental health or other challenges and their families, that is organized into a coordinated network, builds meaningful partnerships with families and youth, and addresses their cultural and linguistic needs, in order to help them to function better at home, in school, in the community, and throughout life.
• The wraparound process is an intensive, individualized care management process for youths/families with serious or complex needs. Wraparound was initially developed in the 1980s as a means for maintaining youth with the most serious emotional and behavioral problems in their home and community.
• Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) is an approach in the human service field that assumes that an individual is more likely than not to have a history of trauma. Trauma-Informed Care recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role trauma may play in an individual's life- including service staff.
• Racial equality occurs when institutions give equal opportunities to people of all races. In other words, regardless of physical traits such as skin color, institutions are to give individuals legal, moral, and political equality

The drivers of the effort are the residents: Nothing about us without us.