Seeking Information on Tribal Trauma-Informed Initiatives

Dan - Clare Reidy actually connected you and me via email, but it seems neither of us has had the time do follow through! We at ChildWise Institute have been working some with the tribal nations here in Montana for a couple years now. Our relationships and work have been accelerating recently. Still, we have a lot of work to do just in advancing awareness and knowledge about the ACE Study, toxic stress, and resilience... which in my opinion is foundational to any trauma-informed initiatives being put in motion. I am doing a lot of training in Tribal schools of late, and more are on the calendar. I am also recently working with the Montana Advisory Council on Indian Education, which is a council made up of all eight tribes in Montana. The interest level is very high, and engagement is increasing, so I hope to have more to report on actual trauma-informed actions being implemented in the near future. I am very interested in what you learn from others around the country. Thank you for your hard work!

Todd Garrison
ChildWise Institute

Todd. I would enjoy an opportunity to learn more about what you are doing and share with you out initiatives. Do you have to line for a call on Friday or Monday

Regards
Dan

It just hit me who Claire Is. You are part of the RWJ funded program th Health Foundation of Philadelphia is administering, correct? Leslie and I work closely on the Campaign for Trauma informed Policy and Practice.

White Bison approached us asking if they could complement our whole family, trauma sensitive, recovery program Celebrating Families! with a customized cultural overlay. The result is the WELLBRIETY/CELEBRATING FAMILIES! PARTNERSHIP, which provides Native communities the opportunity to implement a program for healing families affected by alcohol and drug abuse, that recognizes and incorporates traditional cultural teachings and practices.  It addresses, with great appropriateness and sensitivity, the full scope of trauma impacting Native communities.   For more information about the Wellbriety/Celebrating Families!™ Partnership, contact White Bison: 877-871-1495 or info@whitebison.org.

Daniel,

I am beginning to work with tribal schools in South Dakota.  I agree that ACES must be the foundation of all of this work.  At ATN, we embed cultural competency work as well as neurobiology and attachment.

Also, have you reached out to Martin Brokenleg?  He writes a great deal about intergenerational trauma in native american tribes.  I'm about to complete my PhD in developmental trauma in schools and his work is foundational to my research.  He and his colleagues created the Circle of Courage Resilience model. He can be reached at courage@reclaiming.com.

Melissa 

Hi Dan, We spoke on the phone about some of this, and I'd probably be able to provide a lot more information and contacts in a longer conversation, but here are a few things happening in Alaska:

The statewide network (which, like Montana, has also been a MARC community, the RWJ-funded project you mentioned), the Alaska Resilience Initiative, has Alaska Native leadership and guidance at all levels: the co-chairs of our steering committee are Elizabeth Medicine Crow (Tlingit & Haida) and Lisa Wade (Ahtna Athabascan), and there are AN steering committee members, and AN workgroup members and co-chairs. Additionally, we sought guidance from a gathering of Alaska Native and Native American trauma experts that kicked off the initiative, etc. in May 2016, and you can read about that here, and continue to do so with individual AN healers, speakers, etc.. 

One of the projects the Alaska Resilience Initiative is taking on is an Alaska Native 101 video, which would include historical trauma. We've identified this as a key priority for addressing trauma and racism, and are seeking funding for it. 

Many tribes, regional tribal health and social service organizations, tribal consulting businesses and leadership programs, tribal non-profits, etc. throughout Alaska are incorporating the NEAR sciences and ancestral understandings of trauma and resilience into their work. This is an example of one powerful Yup'ik woman doing this work in a very ancestral way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAw5sgYWaOQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4yNbVdiVMI

This is another healer and trainer in Alaska, Tsimshean elder Doug Modig: 

https://vimeo.com/117524967

This is the leadership training program of Elsie Boudreau, Yup'ik social worker and survivor who is on my steering committee and a Board member of the Alaska Children's Trust. She is amazing: http://www.arcticwinds.org/

 

And @Clare Reidy can help find the link to the webinar in which Lisa Wade presented on the Chickaloon Village Tribal School and how they incorporate trauma-informed practices and culture. 

 

Laura – Thank you. Would you be willing to give a ten minute summary of this at our next virtual learning collaborative September 19th at 9:30 your time.
Lets also set up a time for the longer conversation you mentioned. I am free all day tomorrow if you have time.
Regards,
Dan

Laura -- We are seeking organizational endorsements for House Resolution 443, (copy below), which encourages Federal agencies and Congress to implement trauma informed approaches and calls for the establishment of a trauma-informed month. It was introduced by Democrat ,Danny Davis from Illinois and Republican, Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin,. We see this Resolution serving as a foot in the door for getting Congress to start thinking about trauma-informed approaches. Also, the plan is to use the resolution as a launching pad for the creating of a trauma-informed caucus in both Houses.
It would be great if your group can approach your Congressman and ask him to sign onto the resolution. If you make contact, I can follow up with a meeting at his D.C. office.. Thanks, Dan




H. RES. 443


Recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care.

Daniel Press posted:

Laura – Thank you. Would you be willing to give a ten minute summary of this at our next virtual learning collaborative September 19th at 9:30 your time.
Lets also set up a time for the longer conversation you mentioned. I am free all day tomorrow if you have time.
Regards,
Dan

Hi Dan, yes to the 19th and I'll see which Alaska Native people leading this work could share along with me. As for talking, if you email me your phone number again I'll try to call you on my next brief layover -- flying for the next 5 hours on a milkrun flight to Ketchikan. I'll send you an email. 

Laura – thanks for getting back to me. I have calls and meetings all afternoon today but am free tomorrow pretty much all day. Let me know what works for you. My cell is 202 361 5477.
Safe travels,
Dan

Hi

 My name is Kenneth Bibbins, my colleagues and I just completed authoring the Native Family Disaster Preparedness Handbook in collaboration with the National Tribal Emergency Management Council and we have information about trauma informed solutions inside. I’m a Clinical Physiologist and Disaster Subject Matter Expert (SME) who oversaw the recovery efforts of Hurricane Katrina here in New Orleans, La in 2005. Having worked extensively with City, State and Federal Government Key stakeholders in developing protocols, programs and action plans for kids and adults traumatized during Hurricane Katrina and working with educators in assisting students in re-establishing their academic studies while simultaneously rebuilding their shattered lives, I saw first-hand how students struggled through a multitude of traumas relating to the storm, and how it influenced their learning environment and process, which is the basis for my current research and the development of the K-5 PrepBiz trauma informed disaster literacy game-based learning materials and tools using IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing and chat bots

The sheer size and scope of the Katrina impact on children forced my team to think of new and creative solutions to address the multitude of needs.  The PrepBiz project is an outgrowth of the ramifications witnessed in New Orleans as a solution to help kids build resilience, and greater self-confidence for empowerment for better outcomes in disasters and to ameliorate trauma some youth experience post event and to provide greater psychological awareness to other adverse childhood experiences. 

 Each year millions of children are disproportionately impacted by disasters disrupting their lives, families, schools, and communities; from simple house fires—to the levels of devastation witnessed in the 2004 Tsunami, 2005 Hurricane Katrina and now the 2017 Hurricane Harvey disasters, yet insufficient attention has been given to preparing this population. Youth are particularly susceptible to three types of vulnerabilities during disasters: psychological, physical, and educational.

Disasters are calamitous events, traumatic and customarily outside the scope of normal human experiences and likely to involve psychological and physical injury. Children are uniquely affected by disasters because they are afflicted not only by the trauma of the event but also by their parents' fear and distress.

 PrepBiz recognizes the emotional effects of disasters on children are not always immediate and can last for years and may also affect their academic attainment. Evidence suggests parents and schools should not wait to deal with the enormous difficulty of explaining disasters or hazards to kids for the first time after they occur.

With the frequency and intensity of disasters increasing and more kids being affected by school shootings, increasing acts of terrorism, rising crime and the lingering aftermath of disasters, we face a growing public health crisis caused by trauma that touches us all. The future of any society depends on its ability to foster the healthy development of the next generation.

 Through our collaborations with IBM Watson and Microsoft Skype for the Classroom we are providing disaster curriculum not only to the students in U.S. but also to a global audience.

PrepBiz youth disaster literacy book series entitled “The Adventures of Hopper,” educates youth on best practice responses to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and a host of other natural and man-made disasters.

 PrepBiz game-based learning and chat bots provides collaborative guidance in the form of "engagement knowledge" through gamification infusing emergency preparedness principles across the entire educational experience to help kids build confidence when faced with these types of incidents and may help ameliorate psychological morbidity that some youth may experience when faced with a family disruptive tragic event, emergency, hazards, or disaster. PrepBiz offers a healthy balanced collaborative that is educational, fun, and engaging. Elements of preparedness are couched in terms todays' youth understand – “gamification,” with each level of mastery being engaging and feeling rewarding.

 Given that natural disasters have increased in frequency and intensity, the need for both present and future generations to actively undertake emergency preparedness and hazard awareness activities has heightened in recent years.  

Please take a moment and check out our website at http://www.prepbiz.us/ we have some of our trauma informed educational materials posted on the site as well as a demo of our chat bot talking to a kid about her fears of fire. 

 I would welcome an opportunity to speak with you and to provide additional insight and information regarding our efforts to educate all youth on trauma informed disaster literacy for greater resilience and greater psychological awareness.