“This is how love wins.”

That was the parting sentiment from Nelba Marquez-Greene following a Newtown Bee interview with her and husband Jimmy Greene, founders of The Ana Grace Project, a multifaceted initiative developed to honor their daughter, one of the Sandy Hook Elementary School students killed on 12/14.

The couple still clearly has difficult moments as they refer to their daughter amid revealing details about a pair of upcoming events being hosted by the Project and partners including The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation, Western Connecticut State University, Newtown Recovery & Resiliency Team, Newtown Public Schools, The Resiliency Center of Newtown, and the Child Trauma Academy on December 2 and 3.

The first event is exclusively for the community, and is patterned after a similar community gathering the couple hosted in the Hartford region. Ms Marquez-Greene explained that the Project is bringing in a group of experts for the benefit of community members who feel they have been impacted by the 12/14 tragedy.

“We don’t have a lot of good Newtown memories,” she said. “We were here four months before the tragedy; however it’s the town where [our son] Isaiah lives, and Isaiah doesn’t want to leave. And for that reason, we feel so strongly that we want to live in a healthy community, and help contribute to the health of this community. My son loves Newtown and that makes us all love it and want to be a part of it.”

She called the December 2 event, which will take place from 9 to 11 am at Newtown Congregational Church, a give-back to the community, involving a breakfast featuring renowned trauma recovery expert Dr Bruce Perry, who will also be privately visiting with local educators later in the day.

“[School Superintendent] Joe Erardi has just been so wonderful asking how we could bring this resource to Newtown. And through the Ana Grace Project we are able to do this effectively,” Ms Marquez-Greene said.

She said Dr Perry, and many of the other speakers who will be involved with a daylong trauma recovery symposium the following day at WestConn, all waived their fees to maximize the ability for those most in need of attending the events can do so. The university has also helped streamline procedures to allow the event to be held on campus during the busy preholiday period.

“This is really a collaborative effort of love by our family for the community which our son cares so much about,” Ms Marquez-Greene reiterated. “Bruce will be here meeting with different groups of people from parents to front line school staff who work with our kids. We’re billing it as ‘two days of help, hope and information.’ So day one will be at Newtown Congregational Church.”

The subject of Dr Perry’s Newtown talk will be how “Deepening Connections & Relationships Transform Families and Communities.” Parents, clergy, civic groups, seniors, and community leaders are all urged to attend. There is a cap due to space.

For reservations, click here.

‘Something This Meaningful’

“It feels amazing to have an opportunity to do something this meaningful and this important in honor of our daughter’s life,” Ms Marquez-Greene said

“Why are we doing this? Because we feel this exemplifies love winning. And it provides Isaiah some role modeling on how to handle adversity — it honors both mine and Jimmy’s professional careers, and it honors God, which is something we always want to do,” she added.

Ms Marquez-Greene said the inspiration for bringing this local event to Newtown came after she met with several educators from Sandy Hook School who attended the first Ana Grace conference in 2013.

“They came to us and asked how they could bring this in for the teachers and our community. So that prompted us to start thinking about how we could bring this home to Newtown,” she said.

The 2015 Love Wins Mental Health Conference, on December 3 at Western Connecticut State University, will also focus on building community and creating interpersonal connection to prevent violence and promote recovery. It will be held at the university’s westside campus at the brand-new Western Connecticut State University Visual & Performing Arts Center.

At that event, Dr Perry will to speak about “The Neurobiological, Social/Emotional and Relational Underpinnings of Resilience.”

He is the senior fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Dr Perry is the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with abused children, and Born For Love: Why Empathy is Essential and Endangered. His most recent multimedia book, BRIEF: Reflections on Childhood, Trauma and Society, was released in 2013.

Over the last 30 years, Dr Perry has been an active teacher, clinician, and researcher in children’s mental health and the neurosciences holding a variety of academic positions. He is a strong supporter of The Ana Grace Project.

Breakout Sessions

The conference will also feature breakout sessions including:

*Traumatic Bereavement In Adults with Laurie Anne Pearlman, PhD, founder of the Traumatic Stress Institute

*School Safety: Bullet Proof Back, Lock Down Drills, Metal Detectors & More with Bill Modzeleski, BA, MPA, former associate assistant deputy secretary for the US Department of Education

*Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) — Working With Challenging Youth, with Stuart Ablon, PhD, director of Think:Kids in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate clinical professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

*Developing Healthy Boys & Men At The Intersection Of Class, Race And Gender with James Arana, MSW, and John Engel, LCSW ,of the Healthy Men and Boys Network of Western Massachusetts

*After Disaster Strikes: Responding To Children, Families And Communities with Robin Gurwitch, PhD, clinical psychologist at Duke University Medical Center; and

*Beyond Talk Therapy…What Else Works In Healing? Featuring Stephanie Cinque, MSW, and Jonathan Barnett of Resiliency Center of Newtown; Adam Carley of REACH; and Isabel Logan, MSW, State of Connecticut Office of the Public Defender.

Cost for the daylong seminar is $150, which includes all sessions, continental breakfast, lunch and dessert reception. Registration can be done online through anagraceproject.org.

There are a limited number of scholarship slots available to the Sandy Hook community as part of a grant through The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation, Inc. To request a scholarships, e-mail jbarahona@nshcf.org.

For group registrations, e-mail alidac@klingberg.com. For additional information and registration, visit anagraceproject.org or contact Alida Conley, at Klingberg Family Centers Traumatic Stress Institute, at 860-832-5562 or alidac@klingberg.com.