In an effort to help reduce stress and building resilience for essential healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) partnered with Lumos Transforms to make The Resilience Toolkit available to the union’s 97,000 members and leaders.

Healthcare workers are facing unprecedented levels of stress as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace and in their personal lives. The Resilience Toolkit utilizes promising stress reduction practices that reconnect people to a sense of relaxation and hope, even during difficult circumstances. By giving SEIU-UHW members self-care practices that are truly effective, within an accessible and sustainable framework, The Resilience Toolkit aims to help them grow resilience over time.   Read More

Dr. Cheryl Grills, Kagiso Nkosi, and Nkem Ndefo

Toolkit creator, Nkem Ndefo, facilitated two days of training with graduate students from nineSouth African universities as part of the Tirisano Training Programme. This is an NIH-funded consortium in partnership with UCLA to develop researchers of color with a knowledge base in chronic stress, trauma, and mental health in vulnerable, marginalized, and exploited populations using culturally relevant methods.

Nkem discussed topics such as Polyvagal theory, gendered stress responses, and appeasement throughout her presentations on biologic dysregulation of chronic stress and trauma. In attendance were students from the Forum for African Psychology who provided exciting and inspiring critical analysis. Read More

The Los Angeles City Mayor’s office presented Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit, Nkem Ndefo with a Certificate of Recognition on April 10, 2019. The Mayor’s Office of Public Safety recognized Lumos for The Resilience Toolkit-based training they did with the Mayor’s staff in the Gang Reduction and Youth Development program earlier in the year.

“Your knowledge and expertise has been of great value to the City of Los Angeles, and your dedication and willingness to collaborate has helped make our City a more trauma and resiliency-informed place.”