The Lunch Hour with Father Paul Abernathy

In collaboration with Collectively Rooted, HEAL PA is delighted to host a yearlong program with Maryann McEvoy, Executive Director of Governor Wolf’s Office of Advocacy and Reform and Child Advocate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and an ensemble of renowned thinkers, authors, and presenters who work in the field of trauma recovery. These ongoing conversations focus on issues that are deeply relevant to Pennsylvania residents and will give our community space to reflect on, identify, and address the trauma in their lives and communities.

Father Paul Abernathy is an Orthodox Christian priest and the founding CEO of the Neighborhood Resilience Project. Since 2011, Fr. Paul has labored with his community to address Community Trauma with Trauma Informed Community Development; A framework that facilitates the transformation of trauma affected communities to resilient, healing and healthy communities so that people can be healthy enough to sustain opportunities and realize their potential. Under Fr. Paul’s leadership, innovative trauma-informed grass-roots strategies have been developed and implemented to address acute, historical, transgenerational and complex trauma on a community level. In addition to programming, millions of dollars in various kinds of support have also been distributed to the Greater Pittsburgh Area with his direction. Community groups from across the nation have worked with Fr. Paul to be trained in the Trauma-Informed Community Development framework.