Creating Community
Do you know Sarah Buffie? If you live in Ohio and have engaged with Pause or engaged in trainings about resilience in some capacity, you most likely have met Sarah and her big heart and personality! #BecauseShesARockstar
Sarah is the Founding Director of Soul Bird Consulting and a Trauma Responsive Care Trainer. Pause has partnered with Sarah over the past three years to train families, professionals, and community members on the impacts of trauma and toxic stress and building resilient communities.
Pre-Covid (can you believe this is a term we use nowadays?!), Sarah hosted in-person trainings for Pause families and local professionals - giving us all a chance to get curious and creative about how to meet people where they are and how to foster connection in a way that matters to the people we love and support. As more people had a chance to hear what she had to say, the more people wanted to share space with her. To date, thousands of people have taken away knowledge and practice around the idea of resilience and living full lives.
In 2020, Pause families found themselves in an extremely high season of stress, but with little to now access to resources. We asked Sarah to do something radical - meet us on Zoom after Pause kiddos were in bed to help train and coach our families through the toxic stress they were facing. During those months, and from all over the world, Sarah signed on to Zoom religiously and not only taught us how to regulate ourselves and our kiddos, but she opened her heart and mind to listening to what our families had to say. We all learned from her - there is no doubt about that, but it was a gift to watch her learn from our caregivers as well.
Along with having a God given talent to communicate, Sarah also is creative, innovative and never afraid to recalibrate the mission to align with what the people she is serving need in that moment. When we approached her about expanding the conversation from just families to the community as well, she said “Well, heck yeah! Let’s do it!” Thrive for Community launched to bridge gaps, build unity and create a safe space for tough conversations. Through this process, we were able to connect with a family featured in the documentary, Intelligent Lives and have really thoughtful and full conversations about what it means to grow a circle of support for children with disabilities. Lives changed through that process and it’s one of the many ways Sarah has shown up for families.
On October 28th, Pause hosted Sarah Buffie to lead a Toxic Stress: Together We Can Heal training. We focused on understanding how trauma and toxic stress impact the brain and ways to help ourselves pause during stressful situations. This training expanded the community conversation and brought together families, educators, volunteers, faith based organizations and social service organizations. In this, we were able to reach more people all over Ohio - touching 21 counties to be exact!
Sarah says, “As a lead facilitator with Soul Bird, I have been deeply impacted by the stories I hear from families, the vulnerability, courage and creativity that is nurtured within the community and personally and professionally stretched as I endeavor to offer a listening heart and ear. Pause families and the leadership model meeting people where they are, overcoming obstacles with a resilience focus in mind and offering unrelenting support to one another as they navigate family life. It’s an honor to be in community together!”
It’s an honor to partner with YOU, Sarah and we are so thankful you have used your gifts to stretch our limits and opened yourself up to learn new things along the way too.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
