Boston University is proud to announce that it has been awarded a $611,500 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to continue and expand the “Trauma-Responsive Congregations” project.
This project, which is a continuation of a four-year program previously funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative, will help the university scale the work of supporting urban congregations in addressing collective trauma through an innovative, interdisciplinary approach. The new grant will enable the project to continue through 2028.
A collaboration between the Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) and the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine (CAMED), the Trauma-Responsive Congregations project combines resources from trauma studies, trauma-informed theology, pastoral care, and mental health. The unique partnership supports congregations as they respond to the complex and multi-dimensional needs of their communities, promoting healing and resilience.
The project is led by principal investigators Dr. Shelly Rambo (BUSTH), Dr. Eunil David Cho (BUSTH), and Dr. Eric Brown (CAMED). Their leadership ensures that the project remains deeply rooted in both theological and practical understanding of trauma within faith communities.
Building on the success of the first phase of the project (2020-2024), which worked with 10 urban congregations across San Diego, Boston, and one congregation that meets entirely online, the next phase of the project will expand to include 30 new congregations from multiple denominations.
These congregations will be part of five new learning cohorts that will focus on shared contexts, such as multicultural churches, Black churches, immigrant churches, congregations ministering to LGBTQ+ members who have been affected by religious trauma, and congregations in communities facing significant numbers of individuals and families experience homelessness. Each cohort of clergy and lay leaders will take part in in a three-month program that includes an educational series, an in-person retreat, and group mentoring. Participating congregations will also develop concrete action plans tailored to their missions and aimed at addressing the trauma affecting their communities.
“During this critical time in our nation’s history, where stress and trauma are at the forefront of many of our minds, we are excited to continue our work with congregations to help them draw upon their innate strengths as religious communities to serve as agents of healing,” says principal investigator Dr. Eric Brown. “As a team we are comprised of both church leaders and scholars with expertise in trauma theology, mental health, and pastoral care.”
The next phase of this important work promises to bring greater opportunities for growth, collaboration, and transformation for congregations across the country.
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Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it also funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. While the primary aim of its religion grantmaking focuses on strengthening the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States, the Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the contributions that people of all faiths and diverse religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.