Parkland Recovery Team Joins National Support Network for Families Affected by Violence
SOUTH FLORIDA, October 22, 2026, The Youth Peace & Justice Foundation, also known as The Uvalde Foundation For Kids, has welcomed South Florida therapist Les Gordon, LMFT, and his team at Professionals United for Parkland into its national collaborative network, expanding the foundation’s resources for families, schools, and communities affected by violence.
The collaboration brings together Gordon’s decades of clinical experience, the Parkland team’s recovery-focused public education materials, and the foundation’s nationwide crisis-response work. It also strengthens the foundation’s ties in Florida at a time when communities across the country continue to seek practical, compassionate support after acts of violence.
The Youth Peace & Justice Foundation expands its national network
The Youth Peace & Justice Foundation has been building a national network focused on helping families and communities respond to violence. By bringing Professionals United for Parkland into that network, the foundation adds a team with direct experience supporting a community after a school tragedy.
Les Gordon is a licensed marriage and family therapist in South Florida with more than 40 years of clinical experience. His work with Professionals United for Parkland grew out of the community response following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
After that tragedy, Gordon and the team helped create public service announcement videos for students, parents, educators, and community members. The videos were designed to help people understand and navigate the emotional aftermath of violence.
The foundation is now incorporating those materials into its national resource network. The goal is to make the videos easier for families, schools, and community organizations to find and share when they need support.
The move also gives the foundation stronger connections with clinicians and recovery-focused professionals in South Florida and across the state.
Parkland’s recovery experience adds practical support
Communities affected by violence often need more than a single response. They need help in the days after a tragedy, and they may also need support through weeks, months, and years of grief, fear, anger, confusion, and rebuilding.
That is where the Parkland materials may serve a wider purpose.
The Professionals United for Parkland video collection focuses on issues that can arise after a traumatic event. The materials were created for people who may be trying to help young people, support families, or guide school communities through emotionally difficult periods.
The audience for these videos includes:
Students trying to understand their reactions after violence
Parents and caregivers looking for ways to support children
Educators working with affected students and families
Community groups seeking calm, informed recovery resources
Local leaders helping people find credible support
The videos are not a replacement for therapy, emergency care, or direct crisis intervention. They are public education resources that can help people start conversations, identify needs, and recognize that emotional recovery after violence can be complex.
For families and educators, that kind of accessible resource can matter. After a tragedy, people may not know what to say. They may not know what reactions are expected, when to ask for help, or how to support someone without causing more harm.
Clear, plain-language resources can give people a starting point.
The video collection is available to the public
The Professionals United for Parkland video collection is available on YouTube. Families, students, educators, and community organizations can view and share the materials as needed.
Watch the collection here: Professionals United for Parkland on YouTube
The foundation’s decision to include the videos in its national resource network makes the collection part of a broader effort to connect communities with recovery tools after violence.
That effort is especially relevant for places facing recent tragedy. The foundation has been coordinating crisis-response efforts connected to the Silver Rail Elementary tragedy in Bend, Oregon, and the Parkland materials may help families and educators there, as well as in other communities seeking support.
Recovery after violence is rarely a single event. It often requires trusted people, clear resources, and repeated opportunities for families and communities to feel heard.
The videos also reflect a key need in post-tragedy support: resources must be easy to access. In moments of crisis, families and schools may not have time to search through complicated systems. A publicly available video collection can be shared quickly by community leaders, parent groups, school teams, and local organizations.
The collaboration strengthens Florida and nationwide response efforts
This partnership has both local and national value.
In Florida, it connects the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation with professionals who have experience in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting. That experience is difficult, but it can help inform future response efforts when other communities face violence.
Nationwide, the collaboration adds another layer to the foundation’s growing support network. The foundation’s work reaches communities beyond any single city or state, and the addition of the Parkland team gives that work a stronger base of recovery-focused resources.
The partnership also reflects a larger reality. No single organization can meet every need after a tragedy. Families may need counseling. Schools may need guidance. Students may need safe spaces to talk. Local leaders may need help coordinating support. Community organizations may need credible materials they can share without delay.
A collaborative network can help connect those pieces.
By bringing in Professionals United for Parkland, the foundation adds people and resources shaped by direct community experience. That can help improve how support is offered in future crisis-response efforts.
Why public recovery resources matter after violence
After community violence, people often look for immediate answers. Yet emotional recovery usually unfolds over time.
Some people may want to talk right away. Others may go quiet. Some may feel anger, fear, guilt, numbness, or exhaustion. Children and teens may show distress through sleep changes, irritability, withdrawal, school struggles, or physical complaints. Adults may also struggle while trying to care for others.
Public education materials cannot solve every problem, but they can help people recognize when support may be needed. They can also give families and educators a shared language.
That shared language matters because trauma can isolate people. A parent may wonder whether a child’s reaction is unusual. A student may feel ashamed for being scared. A teacher may worry about saying the wrong thing. A community leader may want to help but lack guidance.
Resources from trained professionals can reduce some of that uncertainty.
The Parkland video collection was created for a community dealing with the aftermath of a real tragedy. Now, through the foundation’s network, those materials may support people in other areas facing similar pain.
That does not mean every community’s experience is the same. Each tragedy has its own context. Each family grieves differently. Each school has its own needs. Still, recovery resources shaped by clinical experience and community response can offer guidance when people are searching for steady ground.
A network built around families, schools, and communities
The Youth Peace & Justice Foundation’s work centers on communities affected by violence, including families and children. Its national network approach allows the foundation to bring together people with different kinds of experience, including therapists, advocates, educators, crisis-response volunteers, and community partners.
The addition of Les Gordon and Professionals United for Parkland fits that model.
Gordon’s background as a licensed marriage and family therapist brings a clinical perspective. The Parkland team’s work brings community-based experience. The foundation’s national reach helps place those resources where they may be useful.
Together, the collaboration supports a simple but important goal: help communities access care-informed resources when they are facing grief, fear, and uncertainty.
For schools and organizations, this kind of network can also help prevent isolation. A local community responding to violence may feel alone, even when other communities have faced similar trauma. National partnerships can connect those communities to people who understand the weight of the moment and can offer practical materials.
What happens next
The Youth Peace & Justice Foundation will incorporate the Professionals United for Parkland videos into its national resource network. The collection will remain available to the public on YouTube, where families, students, educators, and organizations can view and share the videos.
The collaboration also expands the foundation’s connections in South Florida and throughout Florida. That may support future response efforts in the state and help the foundation connect with more professionals who can assist families and communities nationwide.
For communities affected by violence, the most immediate takeaway is that more resources are becoming available. The Parkland team’s recovery videos can be used as part of broader support efforts, especially when families and schools need accessible guidance during painful and confusing times.
Anyone in immediate danger should contact emergency services. Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis should seek help from a qualified professional or local crisis resource. The videos are informational and supportive, but they do not replace direct care.
The partnership between the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation and Professionals United for Parkland adds experienced voices to a national effort that no community should have to face alone. For families, educators, and local organizations, shared resources can be one step toward steadier support after tragedy.
