Father Jeff Putthoff, SJ, Founder, Hopeworks N’Camden (center), was ecstatic about the reach of his presentation the day before—well beyond the Department of Labor (DOL) auditorium in Washington, DC and out across the country to more than 80 amplifier sites. When he checked his email, he received dozens of requests for his presentation and expressions of interest in how to create trauma-informed communities. Standing to his left is another presenter, Dr. Nancy Hardt, a former University of Florida College of Medicine  professor who's co-founder of the trauma initiative, Peace4Gainesville.   

In addition to “Catalyst Sessions” on trauma-informed approaches in health care and education, the second day's program included an opening statement by Kana Enomoto, the acting administrator of the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and a closing presentation by Teresa Brockie, with the Nursing Research and Translational Science Section, Nursing Department of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

Enomoto expressed the agency’s “unwavering support” for the issue of trauma, a major policy priority for SAMHSA. Brockie has been part of the “Roundtable on Addressing Trauma in Native American Communities,” an initiative started by Dan Press, a Washington, DC, attorney, and Tami DeCoteau, a psychologist from Bismarck, ND,. Brokie addressed the impact of historical trauma in the Native American population and the high rates of suicide, especially among young people. She also addressed the need to evaluate the effects of trauma-informed care on health outcomes and costs.

The Trauma-Informed DC Initiative met for a second time at the DOL as a local “amplifier site,” bringing in new people for its strategy session. They discussed continuing the work already started on the school-to-prison pipeline, assessing the use of trauma-informed principles in parenting, using mapping to demonstrate the degree and location of childhood adversity in the region, and addressing practices in the DC courts. 

Dozens of participants signed up for the new group on ACEs Connection—Resilience USA—that was formed to address what is happening at the national level on ACE-, trauma-informed and resilience-building movement. The timing of the new group coincided with the conference to build on the momentum it creates to “move the conversation into action.”