The Workforce Development Work Group met on Wednesday, January 20th at Friends Center in Philadelphia, PA. The group began with updates of recent work, including work that had been done in 2015, which was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This work was focused on encouraging graduate level programs incorporate ACE-related information into their curricula. The work resulted in local and national environmental scans as well as a training in trauma-informed care for Temple University’s School of Social Work. Work Group members should expect a final report from this grant-funded work in the coming weeks.
Group members went on to discuss the development of a resource list for trauma-informed trainings in the Philadelphia region. The Work Group will work together to develop this list and will post on the Philadelphia ACE Task Force website, once that is up and running. Group members were excited that this resource will be up for the public.
Finally, the group discussed some possible directions for upcoming work and identified four potential avenues:
- A trauma-informed approach to working with hardest to serve (HTS) job seekers
- Working with existing caring professionals to alleviate vicarious trauma
- Developing continuing education opportunities for essential professionals (teachers, child care providers, health care providers, etc.)
- Advocating for the inclusion of ACE information into institutions of higher education in order to impact the future workforce
The group was excited about the prospect of all these avenues and discussed next steps for each. The work group will plan to engage an outside facilitator to help build out their strategic plan as the work moves forward.
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