A Year of Community Recovery, Resilience, and Impact
When Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina in the fall of 2024, it changed our communities overnight. Homes and businesses were damaged, schools and workplaces were disrupted, and many people faced uncertainty, loss, and overwhelming stress.
While rebuilding infrastructure would take time, another need quickly became clear: people needed practical tools to navigate challenges, reconnect with one another, and begin healing.
At Resources for Resilience, we knew recovery would require more than an immediate response. It would take a long-term commitment to supporting individuals, families, organizations, and communities as they rebuilt together.
Thanks to an extraordinary $2 million partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Vaya Health, the WNC Recovery Office, and countless community partners, that vision became reality through the GROW NC Project.
As this regional initiative wraps up, we’re taking a look back at all of the focused care and connection that helped thousands of people discover that healing is possible.
An Unprecedented Year of Community Impact
From June 2025 through June 2026, the GROW NC Project achieved a huge amount of impact in a short amount of time.
- DELIVERED 23 hours of direct crisis support in the wake of the storm
- DOUBLED the size of our team with 7 new staff and over 40 event-support volunteers
- HOSTED 350 specialized trainings, workshops, and events
- ADMINISTERED nearly 700 hours of FREE trauma-informed programming, in person and online
- SUPPORTED over 6,000 participants across 25 Helene-impacted counties
- CERTIFIED 10 new Resilency Ambassadors to serve across their professional networks in WNC
- LAUNCHED 3 new trauma-informed offerings for our key audiences
- WELCOMED around 55 resilency partners and special guests to our inaugural professional development conference
- FEATURED in over 50 different media sites, including local press and national media channels
- OFFERED 35 opportunities for affordable CEU credits in collaboration with Area L-AHEC
- COMPLETED onboarding training and quality support for 81 new and existing trainers
- PROVIDED over 300 hours of technical assistance and support to our certified trainers
- EXPANDED visibility resulting in over 1300 new email subscribers and social media followers
- OBSERVED over 26,000 new visitors to our updated website, resourcesforresilience.org
Growing Our Capacity To Serve
This work would not have been possible without strengthening our own organizational capacity. GROW NC Project funding enabled Resources for Resilience to expand our team, deepen regional partnerships, increase outreach efforts, and respond more effectively to community needs. This growth allowed us to serve more people than ever before while maintaining the relationship-centered approach that has defined our organization since our founding
Perhaps most remarkably, nearly 30% of our organization’s total growth over the past eight years occurred in the 18 months following Hurricane Helene.
The message is clear: when communities face hardship, they seek connection, support, and tools for healing. Time and again, people have turned to Resources for Resilience during moments of crisis—and that’s where we will continue to show up when it matters most.
This growth reflects both the tremendous need across our region and the power of making resilience education accessible to everyone.
Meeting The Moment
Within days of Hurricane Helene’s landfall, our team mobilized to provide crisis support in shelters, distribution centers, and community hubs across Western North Carolina.
As recovery needs grew, so did our response. What began as emergency support quickly evolved into one of the largest resilience education efforts in our history, bringing trauma-informed programming directly to schools, healthcare systems, nonprofits, workplaces, and community spaces while expanding virtual access across the region.
Recognizing that recovery would take many months—and in fact, years—we remained committed to providing practical tools and compassionate support wherever they were needed most.
Flexibility was one of the project’s greatest strengths.
Approximately half of all programming was delivered in person throughout mountain towns and rural communities most affected by Hurricane Helene. The remainder was offered virtually, allowing participants to access support from home, work, or wherever they felt most comfortable.
This hybrid approach enabled us to serve educators, healthcare workers, behavioral health providers, nonprofit staff, volunteers, caregivers, families, and community members across all 25 impacted counties.
No matter where someone lived—or what challenges they faced—they had access to practical, science-based tools for managing stress and building resilience.
Helping the Helpers
Throughout the project, one priority remained constant: supporting the people who spend every day supporting others.
Programs were intentionally designed for those experiencing high levels of stress and burnout, including:
- First responders
- Educators
- Healthcare professionals
- Behavioral health providers
- Nonprofit staff
- Volunteers
- Community leaders
- Caregivers
By helping these professionals strengthen their own resilience, we amplified the ripple effect of healing throughout the communities they serve.
Programs Created for Recovery
As we listened to participants throughout the recovery process, new needs emerged. In response, our team developed several original programs specifically designed to support post-disaster healing.
- Reconnecting Through Hard Times: A one-hour training to equip community members with practical tools for supporting others through stress, uncertainty, and overwhelm.
- Resilient Family Adventure: This innovative, interactive experience combines resilience practices with hands-on, nature-based activities, helping children and caregivers reconnect through movement, joy, and shared learning.
- Recharging Resilience: Designed for frontline helpers, healthcare professionals, nonprofit staff, and service providers, this one-day workshop focuses on burnout prevention, nervous system regulation, and sustainable self-care.
Together, these programs expanded our ability to meet emerging community needs while creating lasting resources for future disaster recovery efforts.
Real Stories. Real Healing.
While numbers and data tell part of the story, participant voices tell the rest.
Throughout the project, individuals shared how these programs transformed not only their understanding of stress, but also how they cared for themselves, their families, coworkers, students, clients, and neighbors.”
“Thank you for the important work you are all doing! I have felt forgotten since the storm. And I get it. There’s so many others in crisis. But we’re still trying to recover. The recognition of this was so important to me. This affects all of us. For years to come. And it will keep happening. And being in the room with others going though it who believe differently or vote for different people was powerful. This doesn’t happen a lot. We can heal together and we have tools to do it. I think that people that live in bigger cities think other people have heard of this or have some kind of access to this information. We do not. It is new for us. Thank you. Keep it up! (Recharging Resilience Participant)
“The trainers created a space where it felt comfortable to share, to feel, to check in with myself and how I’m feeling w/o the pressure i put on myself to put that stuff away.” (Reconnect for Resilience Participant)
“I left feeling seen, heard, and taken care of. I felt happy and energized from engaging and practicing the tools rather than many workshops and trainings have you feeling dumped on, drained, and depleted. ” (Leading Through Hard Times Participant)
“The training was a wonderful and calm experience, especially after a community tragedy. We are helpers and don’t have access to these (tools and resources). How does that make sense? I wish there was more (support) for helpers.” (Recharging Participant)
“There have been so many tragedies in our community and it feels like people do something for a second and then move on. But offering these tools was like I could face another day helping others. I wish more people saw that we need help too. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” (Recharging Participant)
Each of these stories remind us that resilience is not about avoiding hardship. It’s about creating spaces where people feel connected, supported, and equipped with practical tools they can carry into everyday life.
Growing Beyond Western North Carolina
While RFR has been doing this work since 2017, the growth and visibility we’ve received post-storm has helped even more people learn about our mission, discover our programming, and understand why community-based mental health support matters.
During this project, Resources for Resilience was featured by numerous local and national media outlets—including CNN, NPR, FEMA, FOX, WLOS, and many others—for our trauma-informed approach to disaster recovery.
We are grateful to all of these media partners for helping us tell our story so that we can continue to sustain this work for years to come.
This recognition helped elevate the importance of resilience education across the nation, and positioned Western North Carolina as a model for community-centered recovery.
Disaster recovery is never measured in weeks or months. It is measured in relationships—communities that continue showing up for one another, individuals who discover the strength to keep moving forward, and countless examples of neighbors helping neighbors and remembering they are not alone.
Looking Ahead
While Resources For Resilience’s funding from the GROW NC Project has come to an end, our mission continues.
As we transition back to a sustainable model supported by grants, partnerships, contracts, and affordable program registration fees, we remain committed to making resilience education accessible to all.
To the GROW NC Office, NCDHHS, Vaya Health, as well as every participant, volunteer, partner organization, funder, and supporter who believed in this work: THANK YOU!
You made this level of regional impact possible. Together, we have helped build stronger, healthier, and more resilient WNC, and we look forward to continuing this work for years to come.
“For me, this has been one of the most unforgettable years in RFR’s story. And probably in my own life.
I still remember the email that came through on March 27, 2025. It shared that $2 million had been allocated from the Governor’s Recovery Office of WNC for Resources for Resilience to offer our programming and outreach across the region.
By April 10, just eight working days later, we had a project proposal out the door. Eight days to meet, to dream, to build something meaningful with a focus on supporting the helpers of Western North Carolina.
We put our vision together, crossing our fingers and toes that it could work. We knew we needed to double our team size and take an approach we had never taken before.
I remember thinking early on, “How are we ever going to pull this off?” Then a few months in it had shifted to, “Are we actually going to pull this off?” And then eventually… “Oh my gosh, yes! we are pullingt his off andin the best way possible!”
And the truth is, this only happened because of every single person on this team.
We rode the waves together, and we were never alone in it. We showed up for each other. We listened. We made space for the hard moments with compassion. And we celebrated, again and again, the big wins and the small ones too. We truly walked the walk of our RFR tools.
Every mile traveled, call made, meeting attended, trainer supported, receipt submitted, huddle held, materials counted. Every community conversation, every social post, every calendar entry, each effort small and large.
All of it mattered. All of it made this project possible.
We may not know exactly what the future will look like exactly. But we do know this: we were part of something big. Something meaningful. And we did it, together.
And that doesn’t just end here. We carry this with us, the impact, the connection, the growth, the exhaustion, and the exhilaration. We carry it as part of who we are now, and as part of this RFR community that continues forward.”
Ashley Putnam, Director of Partnerships & Programming