Principles of trauma-informed care for meetings?

I am also very interested in learning about principles of trauma informed care for adult meetings and trainings and would very much appreciate any resources. Thank you for posting this question, Denise.

Hi.  We have a set of guidelines for trauma informed meetings, and also a set of considerations for the trauma informed care workgroup in managing those meetings.  I'll attach both here.  Best of luck.

Diane

Thanks so much

This was helpful

Happy Holidays

Diane, Thank You for the link to: "Trauma-Informed-Care-Workgroup-Meeting-Guidelines.pdf". There's a marked similarity to some "Community Organizing" [empowerment] 'mutually shared values'.

Bring in an outside speaker to share their experience on how they were affected by trauma. Preferably someone who can teach empathy to your group. 

This is why I quit my local trauma group, they had a public input process guaranteed not to hear me. Research shows the #1 difference between good coalitions and bad coalitions is their ability to honor conflict as a tool for change. 

Do you have a resource for that research, Corinna. That can come in handy. I notice also, that organizations tend to run from conflict instead of recognizing that it's a useful tool in skilled hands.

How the local Trauma group failed to have trauma informed meetings. : https://www.madinamerica.com/2...-mongering-round-ii/

How coalitions in general tend to beat up advocates, why your meeting dynamics are not unique:
https://www.madinamerica.com/2...k-damages-advocates/

How to do better science based public input.  https://www.madinamerica.com/2.../service-user-input/

Hint: stop having meetings and expecting low power groups to get any kind of useful recognition from high power hosts. The meeting itself is the problem.

Instead, do surveys, focus groups, one on one conversations, design thinking workshops, work with civil discourse groups who have a solid process (usually), work with stakeholders in multiple ways. Inviting people to a meeting is one piece of about 20 required for good input. 

Our agency has an acid test now for joining coalitions. 1) Are they willing to share resources with our organization? 2) Will they shift their plan based on what we say? 3) Do they have a plan to allow conflict or do they just try to hush any disagreements that come up? IF NO to any of those, we don't join.

We get plenty of invites to with all 3 NOs. Our local trauma coalition (and many other since then) asked us to work for free, wouldn't share resources, wouldn't change any plans based on our input, and wouldn't allow our groups to settle any kind of conflict. 

On the other hand, the local BikeWyco Coalition is helping our people earn free bikes, they are listening to our feedback, and they have allowed us to disagree. Same with other groups we actually DO work with.

     This may well be the start of a good guidebook for "Community Organizers"- as a profession, as well as up-and-coming [field-trained] organizers, and Social Justice advocates. Having worked professionally [and volunteered] as a 'community organizer', I think every potential asset is worth considering, especially in the planning stages. 

     While Saul Alinsky's book: "Rules for Radicals" addresses many needs for 'dis-empowered communities',  I'd also recommend "Power: A Repossession Manual" by Greg Speeter of the U.Mass-Amherst / Citizen Involvement Training Project.

     I think the [link above to] the Trauma Informed Oregon "Trauma Informed Care Workgroup Meeting Guidelines" raises many pertinent factors for consideration, too.

     Lest I forget, while we're on this topic, my old 'librarian' allies in Oakland, California at The Data Center (where "Impact Research" for Social Justice was their 'Art Form'). Oops-I just discovered this "Library" closed July of 2016, and transferred their holdings to the Bancroft Library (reportedly at U. Cal-Berkeley).