About Resilient Middle Georgia

Resilient Middle Georgia is a trauma-informed, community-building initiative dedicated to helping cities and counties across our region face challenges with empathy, equity, and courage. We work to strengthen families, empower organizations, and foster long-term resilience through shared learning, collaboration, and healing-centered practices.

The seed for Resilient Middle Georgia was planted in the summer of 2019, when two women—Andrea Meyer Stinson and Jill Vanderhoek—watched their children play together under the shade trees of Macon’s Tattnall Square Park. What began as a casual conversation about work and schools quickly turned into a deeper dialogue about the state of their community.

They observed how families with resources often chose to leave public systems, concerned about classrooms affected by behavioral challenges—challenges often rooted in trauma. Together, they reflected on a recurring and painful pattern: instead of asking “What happened to you?” many systems were still asking “What’s wrong with you?” And those entrusted with serving our communities—educators, service providers, faith leaders, and public officials—were often under-equipped to respond with the trauma-informed care and compassion that people deserve.

Both Andrea and Jill brought experience in systems-level work through Georgia Family Connection and Resilient Georgia. Together, they began to dream: What if we built a coalition to reimagine what’s possible? What if we helped Middle Georgia face adversity with knowledge, hope, and resilience?

From that dream, Resilient Middle Georgia was born—a coalition that now brings together leaders and residents from across sectors to create meaningful, lasting change in the lives of children, families, and communities.