Fostering Resilience and Hope in Stanislaus County, CA: Bridging the Gap Between Law Enforcement and the Community

Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office, located in Modesto, California, will serve as the applicant agency for the Fostering Resilience and Hope demonstration initiative under Purpose Area 1: Demonstration Sites. The geographic service area is Stanislaus County (population 550,440), located in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

The goal of the initiative is to develop a train-the-trainer curriculum to foster inclusion of a culture rooted in Hope Theory into law enforcement agencies, and disseminate lessons learned to the field, contributing to systemic change. In order to achieve this goal as one of the four demonstration sites, the Sheriff's Office will direct and oversee the following activities, products, and deliverables:

Hire a 1.0 FTE Project Coordinator and 1.0 FTE Hope Navigator
Plan and deliver annual Community and Law Enforcement Hope Summit locally.
Develop a strategic plan with tangible goals and objectives for implementing a hope-centered framework and practice throughout the agency that responds to the needs of officers
Review existing policies and best practices; expand these to operationalize the Hope Theory for law enforcement promoting safety, well-being, and community-oriented policing practices.
Develop the train-the-trainer curriculum and hope-centered framework toolkit
Develop a detailed implementation and dissemination plan that includes a tiered training system from the top down
Implement a hope-centered framework throughout the Sheriff’s department using the developed toolkit
Using hope-centered practices, implement a cohesive and actionable plan to respond and transform traumatic stress throughout the department.
Pilot and implement the train-the-trainer curriculum which includes a certification program for trainers/hope navigators, use tiered training system
Participate in Learning Exchange Teams & customized Training & Technical Assistance (TA)
Collect Qualitative and Quantitative data from completed activities and analyze to assess the implementation of program activities
Evaluator conducts evaluation using action research model, report to TA provider
Final Report regarding the describing the methodology, findings, and recommendations of the local process evaluation, to be shared with the field

The work performed by Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office, its community partners, the other demonstration sites, the TA provider, and OVC will ensure the initiative achieves the following outcomes:

Mitigate the negative effects of trauma and increase the well-being of law enforcement officers by increasing their hope.
Provide a conceptual framework for relationships between communities and law enforcement agencies.
Increase collective hope to enhance safety and well-being, leadership, and promote relationship building in the community.
Contribute to a system changes in law enforcement culture.