WE DREAM MEAN GREEN: Spotlight on Community Partnerships with Skills City, USA in Fort Worth, Texas.
WE DREAM MEAN GREEN: Spotlight on Community Partnerships with Skills City, USA in Fort Worth, Texas.
The University of North Texas Emergency Management and Safety Services (EMSS), within Risk Management Services, recently welcomed Pastor Kyev Tatum and participants of the Skills City, USA Resilience Responders Initiative—an innovative workforce model redefining inner-city emergency preparedness through economic mobility, healing, and community resilience.
In partnership with Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County and the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas, the initiative equips residents from underserved neighborhoods—particularly single parents transitioning from welfare to the workforce—with industry-aligned training in emergency response, disaster readiness, and public safety. The program intentionally creates pathways to livable wages, preparing participants to serve as trusted community responders and frontline leaders when crises arise.
A defining feature of Skills City, USA is its trauma-informed self-care framework, which provides participants the opportunity to understand and address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that often keep individuals locked in survival mode rather than sustainable mode. Through education, reflection, and supportive coaching, participants learn how unaddressed trauma impacts decision-making, stress response, and long-term stability—while gaining tools to regulate, heal, and build sustainable careers and households.
By integrating emergency preparedness, workforce development, and trauma-informed care, Skills City, USA does more than train responders—it restores dignity, strengthens families, and builds resilient communities from the inside out. Pictured above, participants stand alongside UNT EMSS staff outside the university’s Emergency Operations Center, symbolizing a powerful partnership where education, faith, public safety, and healing intersect to prepare communities for the future.







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