Cultivate Change Leadership Skills for a “Trauma-Informed” Approach
January 16-17th, 2020
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
Please join us for this two-day deep-dive workshop.
Most people working in schools and social services are saying things just got harder. Mental health issues, disruptive behaviors, and addiction are adding stressful new challenges for families and institutions already feeling overwhelmed.
We try to address these issues one-by-one - by “referring out” - hoping a doctor or mental health professional can “fix” the person. Yet, this is keeps us in a reactive mode, investing in ever more treatments, interventions, and pills.
Another way is possible. Groundbreaking scientific research has shown that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) are an underlying root cause of many of the health and social challenges we face. Communities and organizations who have adopted a “trauma-informed” approach have reduced rates of a host of health and social problems simultaneously.
It means shifting from asking “what is wrong with this person?” to asking “what happened to this person?” We shift our focus beyond just individual adversity to a connected community response to complex interrelated challenges, such as addiction, affordable housing, and mental illness.
It also takes changing the culture and practices of institutions, communities, and systems to create environments where people feel belonging and a sense of safety and have opportunities to participate.
Leading this type of change takes a broader set of systems change skills.
In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn skills to lead trauma-informed change within organizations and systems, including:
- The implications of the science of ACES, Polyvagal theory, and adverse community environments for how we work (e.g., revisiting long-held assumptions and paradigms)
- Personal and relational skills to work in trauma-informed ways
- Practical ways to build work cultures where people feel a sense of safety and belonging, meaningful participation, and agency
- Skills to guide change at a community/system scale, including working across disciplines and organizations to develop workable solutions
- How to “see the system” including acknowledging how the history of a system, community, or place has affected the current situation, such as the impact of historical inequities, racism, and traumatic events.
In hands-on exercises, you’ll have opportunities to apply what you are learning to your own context and identify actions for initiating change. You’ll identify points of access at various scales where you can affect change (e.g., personal, relational, team, organization, ecosystem/network.)
A focus throughout will be on how to embed trauma-informed approaches over the long haul, drawing from the “Self-Healing Communities” framework that led to significant improvements in Washington State, such as in Cowlitz country which reduced births to teen mothers by 62%, infant mortality by 43%; and youth suicide and suicide attempts by 98% over 10-15 years.
When organizations and communities apply the science of trauma and resilience, it leads to a wide range of effective solutions and helps us see where the ways we have tried to help individuals may be inadvertently be making the situation worse.
Audience
This workshop will be of value to counselors, educators, social service workers, administrators, DCYF employees, juvenile justice workers, health care professionals, public safety professionals, youth workers, social change advocates, and anyone interested in how to apply trauma-informed approaches. We encourage people to come as a team with colleagues.
This workshop is co-facilitated by:
Emily Read Daniels, trauma-informed consultant and founder of HERE this NOW. Emily has served thousands from around the country through professional development training, keynote addresses, conference presentations, coaching and consulting in the science and application of traumatology (the study of trauma) and trauma-informed care (as defined by SAMSHA principles).
Beth Tener, of New Directions Collaborative, who has over 25 years of experience helping organizations collaborate and work in networked ways to tackle complex challenges and change systems. She has a huge tool box of methods for participatory process, systems thinking, and building collaborative networks. She’s passionate about creating work and educational cultures that allow participation, co-creation, equity, and experiences of how diversity can be a strength.
The workshop is intentionally offered in the bucolic village of Hancock, NH, in a comfortable country inn setting.
Participants will leave this workshop feeling connected, informed, inspired, and more equipped to champion trauma-informed change in their respective settings.
More information: www.herethisnow.org/workshops
Full scholarships are available for participants from the Monadnock Region of NH, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Monadnock Voices for Prevention. Please email emily@herethisnow.orgto inquire.
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