photo by: Bremen Keasey

Hundreds of people gathered Monday night for Justice Matters' Annual Nehemiah Action Assembly at 200 McDonald Dr. in Lawrence.

In a gathering led by a local faith-based advocacy group, hundreds in the Lawrence community and elected officials pledged to address childhood trauma and its ripple effects that negatively impact Douglas County.

The gathering was part of Justice Matters’ annual action assembly, and was held at the DoubleTree Hotel at 200 McDonald Drive. The event brought together hundreds of residents and included a pledge from city and state officials to work together to create a process to solve issues stemming from childhood trauma and gave an update on some of Justice Matters’ other initiatives, like increasing elder care workforce and ending chronic homelessness.

Judy Pope, the co-President of Justice Matters, told the crowd that everyone gathered at the meeting were there by an underlying hope and a shared purpose to address serious problems in the community, like childhood trauma — which has lifelong consequences and is a critical public health issue.

In Douglas County, over 4,000 children and 24,000 adults have experienced significant trauma, according to Kelly Wall, a spokesperson with Justice Matters’ neighborhood network who spoke during the gathering. Those numbers equate to about 1 in 5 children and 1 in 4 adults, and science has demonstrated that suffering trauma leads to an increased likelihood of substance abuse, chronic mental health problems, homelessness and a shorter life span, Wall said.

Jessica Humphrey, a peer support specialist with Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, spoke firsthand about the ways that childhood trauma impacted her. She was emotional, telling the assembly about how she was frequently abused emotionally and physically by her father — to the point of broken bones. Humphrey said that trauma led to her to enter into a marriage that mirrored the same abusive relationship she experienced under her father — who frequently told her “I love you” as he spanked her — and she turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with “emotional warfare I had been living with my whole life.”

Humphrey shared she went into treatment five years ago and escaped the abusive marriage, and now helps others facing similar situations of substance use and trauma as a peer support specialist with Bert Nash. She hopes her story can highlight that “(rough) chapters in our lives are merely just that.”

Wall hoped Humphrey’s story can become a message of hope, and the group is aiming to help implement proven solutions that can help children who have gone through trauma so those negative outcomes are not inevitable.

“We cannot turn away from the pain and suffering of our children,” Wall said.

Justice Matters invited public officials — City Commissioner Amber Sellers; Andy Brown, the deputy secretary for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services; and Kelsee Fout, a maternal and child behavioral health director with the Bureau of Family Health of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment — to join them in committing to putting together a group of stakeholders to address childhood trauma by this September. All three agreed, with Sellers saying she wanted to work so every child in Lawrence — no matter the ZIP code or circumstances — can “heal and thrive.”

“I believe we must act not with pity but with purpose,” Sellers said. “I fully support efforts to help ensure every child has the support they need to heal and thrive.”

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence City Commissioner Amber Sellers committed during the Justice Matters Action Assembly to gathering a group of stakeholders to explore proven systemic solutions to address childhood trauma in the community.

Along with the commitment to address the impacts of childhood trauma, Justice Matters shared the progress it had made on increasing the elder care workforce and ending chronic homelessness.

Brad Wall, a spokesperson with the neighborhood network, shared that Dwyer Workforce Development, a nonprofit agency based in Baltimore, had signed an agreement with Kansas WorkforceOne to bring in more CNAs to the state to provide elderly care, with 12 individuals already expressing interest to work in Lawrence.

John Krehbiel, representing the First United Methodist Church, shared that in terms of addressing homelessness, he had “never been more hopeful” that the city is on the right path to addressing chronic homelessness.

Jason Kuhn and Renae Sharp, a couple who a year ago was “living without a roof over (their) heads,” shared their testimony to the attendees. After feeling invisible and unheard, Kuhn said a friend connected them to resources through the city’s Homelessness Response Team to get help finding housing. Sharp said the help was “more than four walls and a roof,” but dignity and safety.

The couple volunteered with First United Methodist Church during the winter emergency shelter period. Kuhn said this was the first year that no one lost their life due to exposure, and 121 people had moved from being unhoused to house this year.

Those highlighted stories and speeches represented the ways Justice Matters aims to advocate for tangible policy solutions and create real justice in the community. Pope urged the people gathered to continue to work together to advocate and expect change for these types of big and systemic problems, adding justice has been won throughout history when people “refuse to accept the status quo.”

“These are not small challenges, but we do not serve a small god,” Pope said. “We are here because we believe that change is possible.”

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Hundreds of people gathered in a closing prayer during Justice Matters’ 2025 Nehemiah Action Assembly Monday night at the DoubleTree Hotel, 200 McDonald Drive in Lawrence. The group asked public officials to commit to working to addressing issues of childhood trauma in Lawrence and Douglas County.