On May 15^th, the Illinois ACES Response Collaborative joined partners across Illinois to observe the state’s first ever Trauma-Informed Awareness Day. Established through resolutions in the Illinois Senate and House, Trauma-Informed Awareness Day highlighted the impact of adverse childhood experiences and trauma on health and the importance of prevention, community resilience, and trauma-informed care. We are proud to have joined forces with organizations dedicated to trauma-informed care including the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois (CBHA), the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR), Mikva Challenge, Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership (ICMHP), and Strengthening Chicago’s Youth (SCY).

Conceived by CBHA and supported by the Collaborative’s research, Trauma-Informed Awareness Day was sponsored by State Senator Julie Morrison of the 29^th District and State Representative Karina Villa of the 49^th District.  The House and Senate resolutions also call upon the State of Illinois to 1) make policy decisions that take into account early childhood brain development and the concepts of toxic stress, early adversity, and buffering relationships, and 2) provide training to employees of the State of Illinois whose responsibilities impact children and adults about ACEs, toxic stress, and structural violence, as well as about trauma-informed care practices that promote healing and resiliency.

Collaborative Director Lara Altman traveled to Springfield for a press conference marking the day. Senator Morrison, Representative Karina Villa, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Secretary Grace Hou of the Illinois Department of Human Services all spoke on the importance of trauma-informed care in Illinois and the work towards making Illinois a trauma-informed state. CBHA CEO Marvin Lindsey, as well as several youth representatives working with CCR and Mikva Challenge to bring trauma-informed training to their peers, joined Lara at the Capitol.

In Chicago, Policy Analyst Madison Hammett joined forces with Octavia Tyson of CDPH and Collaborative members Lina Cramer and Jackie Samuel to lead a trauma-informed organizations training. Representatives from multiple sectors including education, healthcare, and social services attended the program.

The Collaborative launched a social media campaign using #TraumaInformedIL to promote awareness of the day as well as share resources and examples of how people and organizations can implement the tenets of trauma-informed care in a diverse array of settings. Our Social Media Toolkit provided guidance to organizations on ways to spread the word to their communities. We also published these helpful resources:

• Our new Trauma-Informed Policymaking Tool outlines a policy approach to preventing and healing from trauma. The two-page Tool defines trauma-informed principles and describe their application to both the process of policymaking and its outcome.
• How can you provide client-centered, trauma-informed services so that clients are treated with the dignity that all people deserve? Developed in partnership with Collaborative member Sarah Hess, Five How-Tos of Trauma-Informed Practice provides strategies you can use today to make your services more trauma-informed.

Although the day has passed, you can still get involved in Trauma-Informed Awareness:

1. Invite your network to join the Collaborative’s email list. Click here.
2. Build trauma-informed awareness among your community! Here is a list of resources developed by the Collaborative and more are available here.
3. Not in Illinois? Contact your state legislators and tell them you want them to work towards a Trauma-Informed Awareness Day in your state. Use the language in our resolution as an example.

As always, we invite you to reach out with questions or to become more involved in our work.
Please also check out our ACEs Connection page and website for program updates.