After six months on the front lines, Newtown’s six-member Recovery and Resiliency Team (RRT) is taking stock of its progress while turning a wary eye toward the future.

RRT Community Outreach Liaison Melissa Glaser, LPC, told The Newtown Bee heading into the second anniversary of the 12/14 tragedy that she and her colleagues are developing new resources for the community, while striving to develop a sustainable range of community and individual support networks that can respond to residents’ ongoing recovery and posttraumatic issues for years, if not decades, into the future.

“I hear a lot of people say, ‘Hey, it’s been two years, things should be getting better,’” Ms Glaser said. “But experts tell us from a recovery standpoint, [Newtown is] in its infancy.”

RRT, working out of the former engineer’s house at the entrance to Fairfield Hills, also includes project manager Margot Robins; case managers Catherine Galda LCSW, Suzy DeYoung, MsEd, and Eileen Rondeau, RN; and clinical recovery leader Deb Del Vecchio-Scully, LPC.

“We want to make sure, no matter what, that the community knows our door is always open,” Ms Glaser said. “We want this to be a safe, nonthreatening place where anybody can come if they need to talk, or they need any kind of professional support.”

RRT is also the point agency in charge of monitoring and compensating myriad mental health and counseling professionals who are engaged with community members. Ms Glaser said she authorizes almost $50,000 in payments to those support professionals every month.

With justifiable fears that funds for this compensation are dwindling and will eventually run out, Ms Glaser said one of the many projects on her agenda is to work to find new or alternative funding streams that will replace the $13 million in federal grants from the federal Department of Justice and Education that are both expiring at the end of 2015.

First Selectman Pat Llodra confirmed that officials from those two federal agencies were in Newtown recently, and their representatives indicated that neither agency would likely be providing further or extended funding beyond the current grant awards.

Among other new developments, RRT has just launched its own website, and has also inherited another website formerly used as a clearing house for post-12/14 information. The team’s new website is newtownrrt.org, and it is also going to begin generating new content for onenewtown.com, which has been inactive for several months.

Migrating Web Info

Ms Glaser said the town is also closing its newtowncharities.com site, which was a clearinghouse for information about select, qualified charities that sprung up in the days and weeks following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She said much of that information remaining in effect will migrate to the onenewtown.com address.

That url will now link back to the recovery team's new site.

“This new site will provide links and details about community events, as well as to support resources and mental health providers, town and family foundations related to 12/14, even some resiliency testimonials,” Ms Glaser explained. “We’ll also have a few current events posted.”

RRT is also poised to begin a yearlong, four-phase resiliency program for local first responders. She said the first phase will include a partnership with Heart911, a peer-to-peer support network of 9/11 emergency responders, fire and police personnel who will be available to local volunteers and officers.

Another new project launching in January will support other community leaders and residents hoping to determine the best and most effective path toward Newtown’s own recovery.

“Experts say that after a tragedy, resiliency and recovery differ in every community affected,” Ms Glaser said. “So we are planning a three-part event that we hope will help define what resiliency will look like for Newtown.”

She said that project will involve a “convocation of community leaders,” as well as open community discussions to gather both input and insights.

“We’re really trying to get a good depiction of future community needs, and to create a roadmap so we can plot how to achieve that and address those perceived needs going forward.”

Communitywide Support

RRT is taking a long view toward recovery while realizing the benefits of expanding support to a communitywide, or public health model, versus continuing to devote such significant resources toward maintaining as much one-to-one support.

“That one-to-one model, we’ve learned, is not sustainable. So we will be working on promoting and funding more group activities,” she said. “Funds for individual support have been drying up for some time now, so we really need to begin planning now for when that funding becomes more limited, or is no longer available.”

At their six-month mark, the RRT team is proud of the trust and rapport its members have established among community members.

“To date, we have directly supported the recovery of more than 200 individuals or families,” Ms Glaser said, adding that the RRT’s primary focus is still to “triage, refer, and follow-up.”

“It’s most important we be sure that our families are getting the help they need, and that help is working. And if not, we go to work examining other options,” she said.

The Newtown RRT is located at 28 Trades Lane. For information, call 203-270-4612, e-mail info@newtownrrt.org, or visit newtownrrt.org.