CRI’s story started as the result of a challenge by Dr. Rob Anda in 2007. He said, “Go home and make something happen” at a Community Public Health conference.
So that is what Teri Barila did with the help of Annett Bovent and Mark Brown. Together with local community members, CRI started as a grassroots movement to inform its local community about the negative health effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) if left unaddressed. The documentary Paper Tigers was based on one of several community building initiatives in Walla Walla, WA at the time.
Over a decade later, CRI is now a nonprofit organization conducting trauma-informed training online and in person, across the continent. CRI is recognized as a leader in trauma-informed training and offers several levels of training based on Knowledge, Insight, Strategies and Structures (K.I.S.S.), its blueprint for building community capacity.