1. TRAUMA-INFORMED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
MICHELLE DAY (UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE)
APRIL 04, 2019

2. .TRAUMA.
an event, events, or a set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally life-threatening and that affects physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social well-being
(SAMSHA)

3. .TRAUMA.
Events or circumstances that overwhelm an individual’s ordinary coping mechanisms and disrupt their life’s “narrative”
(lots of people)
Common mental and psychological symptoms

4. Icebreaker / Discussion Starter

5. Why are you here?
What kind of community work are you doing/interested in, and/or how do you imagine trauma might impact that space?

6. Why does trauma matter for community engagement?

7. Adverse Childhood Experiences affect nearly ⅔ of the population (CDC and Kaiser Permanente).

8. 20 people are victims of physical violence by an intimate partner every minute (CDC).

9. About 8 million United States adults have PTSD during a given year (National Center for PTSD).

10. About 19% of men and 15% of women have experienced natural disaster in the United States (SAMHSA).

11. A that’s just a partial snapshot..
As a result, clinicians suggest service providers use universal precautions that assume trauma survivors are present.
Symptoms

12. A that’s just a partial snapshot..
As a result, clinicians suggest service providers use universal precautions that assume trauma survivors are present.
Michelle
ppl doing comm. engagement

13. .What we do with this knowledge matters..
When we do community engagement, especially with historically underserved and oppressed populations, we are interacting with trauma survivors.
.What we do with this knowledge matters..

14. Being “Trauma-Informed”
Evidence-based approaches to working with survivors ethically (that are also appreciated by those without a traumatic past)

15. What does it NOT mean to be trauma-informed?.
That you have to engage trauma directly (in fact, that can be dangerous)
That people have to tell you their trauma in order for you to enact trauma-informed principles

16. What does it mean to be trauma-informed?.
To acknowledge the pervasiveness and impact of trauma on individuals and communities and respond by minimizing retraumatizing practices and promoting resilience
To be aware & prepared

17. Being trauma-informed means asking not “what’s wrong with you,” but “what happened to you.”

18. What alignment do you see with principles for ethical community engagement?

19. Trauma-Informed Principles
Cultural responsiveness and attention to social-ecological context
Self-care / awareness
Institutional support
RICH relationships (Respect, Information Sharing, Connection, Hope)
Promoting safety (avoiding retraumatizing practices, explaining limits of confidentiality), including through being trustworthy and consistent and carefully shaping the physical and relational space
Maximizing choice, collaboration, and other power-sharing or decentering strategies, in ways that focus on participants’ strengths
Promoting components of resilience (health, purpose, community, home)

20. What alignment do you see with principles for ethical community engagement?

21. .How these principles play out should be a negotiation, based on context and conversation with everyone involved..

22. Trauma-Informed Practices
Make a self-care plan.
Develop partnerships with people who have experience or expertise you don’t have.
Identify and work against implicit bias and structural inequalities, including through regular training on cultural responsiveness, etc.
Use correct names / pronouns / pronunciation. Apologize if you get it wrong.

23. Trauma-Informed Practices
Avoid blaming or shaming language (e.g. “Why didn’t you” or “You shouldn’t feel that way”) or denies individuals’ skills and capacities. Privilege non-directive advice and validating language (e.g. “this has worked for many people,” “have you thought about trying ___,” “thank you for sharing that with me, it takes a lot of courage,” “that sounds like it must have been really hard . . .”)
Consider whether trigger/content warnings are appropriate.
[ETC.]

24. Other Essential Skills / Tools
Knowledge of mandatory reporting rules in your context
RICH Relationships model
Mental Health First Aid
Active Listening (1, 2, 3)
Self-Care Planning
Structured Ethical Reflection (Brydon-Miller et al)
Organizational Self-Assessment tools (1, 2)
More Resources

25. Application

26. Make some friends. In small-ish groups (around 4-5, but I trust you):
Pick one person’s community work.
Fill out the adapted SER chart on the back of your handout.
Discuss possible barriers to implementing the trauma-informed practices you came up with, and ways you might work past/around/through those barriers.

27. Sample Barriers Logistics of running a project/organization
Compassion fatigue / vicarious trauma
Organizational culture
Tensions between need to challenge and need to support

28. Discussion / Takeaways / Remaining Questions

29. Circle Back
What definition of safety or resilience is operating in the practices you created?
.Ongoing feedback and evaluation are crucial .components of trauma-informed community .engagement..

30. THANKS! More questions? You can reach me at:

31. Resources, etc.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (esp.TIP 57) — store.samhsa.gov
Connecticut Women’s Consortium
United Way Worldwide Database
Mental Health First Aid
U. of Buffalo School of Social Work Self-Care Starter Kit
Roger D. Fallot and Maxine Harris, “Creating Cultures of Trauma- Informed Care (CCTIC): A Self-Assessment and Planning Protocol”
CDC and Kaiser Permanente on ACEs

32. Some Charts and Illustrations

33. .Common Mental / Psychological Responses to Trauma.

35. .COMPONENTS OF RESILIENCE (SAMHSA).

36. .MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID (SAMHSA).

37. .ACTIVE LISTENING SUMMARY.

38. .ACTIVE LISTENING SUMMARY.

39. .ACTIVE LISTENING SUMMARY.

41. Glossary

42. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Traumatic experiences in childhood, especially involving abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction that are strongly related to a wide range of negative physical and psychological health outcomes, as well as lower educational attainment.
Compassion Fatigue: Experiences of emotional exhaustion, burnout, decreased sense of personal accomplishment, and other stress reactions that can develop as a result of bearing witness to the pain of others. This can be particularly common in “caring” professions, such as counseling or teaching.
Cultural Responsiveness: A dynamic, ongoing process of developing practices that intentionally honor and respect the beliefs, languages, interpersonal styles, and behaviors of students and acknowledge the impacts of cultural on traumatic experiences (adapted from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
Distress: A state of acute stress, anxiety, depression, or other suffering that may or may not be traumatic or connected to an experience of trauma.

43. Resilience: In the context of trauma, the ability to rise above adversity, integrate the trauma experience into the individual’s life story, and live a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.
Re-traumatization: An individual re-experiences a prior traumatic event because of characteristics of a current interaction, environment, activity, etc.
Trauma-Informed: An approach to services of all kinds that acknowledge the prevalence and experiences of trauma-survivors and employs ethical principles and practices designed to minimize the possibility of re- traumatization and promote resilience.
Trauma-Informed Care: A framework used primarily in social work settings to engage in a trauma-informed manner with clients seeking social services (e.g. counseling). Key steps elements include attention to safe, collaborative, and compassionate practices and to building on the strengths and resilience of clients in the contexts of their communities (SAMHSA 3).
Trigger warning: A verbal or written notice that warns the audience

44. Triggering: Sensory reminders of prior traumatic events that can cause an individual intense flashbacks in which they experience the prior trauma as if it were actually happening in the present.
Secondary Trauma: Trauma-related stress reactions and symptoms caused by exposure to another individual’s traumatic experiences.