Violence-Ridden Chicago Neighborhood Gets Resilience Counseling from Israeli NGO

For unfortunate reasons, Israelis have become well acquainted with trauma and PTSD, and as a result, the nonprofit Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center (NATAL) was created to help raise awareness and treat trauma as quickly as possible. Chicago-based Pastor Christopher Harris discovered NATAL on a trip to Israel and had a strong feeling that their model of treatment, prevention, public awareness, and research could be applied in his own community, which was suffering mentally and physically from a rise in urban violence in Illinois’ most populous city. He therefore reached out to coordinate a five-week training by the Israeli organization for faith leaders on dealing with trauma at The Urban Resiliency Network (TURN) in Chicago, since religious figures are far more approachable than professional psychologists in his community. Soon after, TURN set up an Israeli-style helpline for people experiencing trauma, which has met with much success.

NATAL has also helped set up a similar helpline for U.S. Army veterans called the Wounded Warriors Project, which provides support for veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Paraguay, the Philippines, Serbia, Thailand, and Ukraine.