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Trauma-Informed Environments

Several entities across the United States have implemented trauma-informed practices into various initiatives across multiple sectors, including education, healthcare, justice, and faith-based congregations.

Trauma-Informed Communities

Trauma informed communities implement policies and initiatives aimed at acknowledging, addressing, and preventing the impacts of adverse childhood experiences and other lived trauma among all members of the community.

Examples of Trauma-Informed Communities

1. Trauma Informed Oregon is a statewide collaborative aimed at preventing and ameliorating the impact of adverse experiences on children, adults and families. Trauma Informed Oregon works to promote and sustain trauma-informed policies and practices across physical, mental, and behavioral health systems and to disseminate promising strategies to support wellness and resilience.
2. Tarpon Springs, Florida was the first city in the United States with the goal of becoming a trauma-informed community. The Peace4Tarpon Trauma Informed Community Initiative is a  grassroots effort that started over six years. Peace4Tarpon looks through a “trauma informed lens” to seek the root causes of our most challenging issues rather than addressing symptoms.
3. Fostering Futures is a state-wide initiative in Wisconsin to raise awareness about how childhood trauma can dramatically shape a person’s life. This initiative has grown over time to become a dynamic collaboration amongst many different organizational partners who share a common vision to prevent and reduce childhood trauma while working to improve the health and wellbeing of Wisconsin’s children and their families.

Trauma-Informed Schools

Trauma-informed schools are those in which systems, processes, and training are in place to address the impact of trauma and toxic stress on both staff and students. Educators can access information about how the imbalances in the brains of student’s who have experienced trauma may challenge their ability to be successful learners, as well as resources to help lower the levels of stress hormones in a child’s body, strengthen the neural connections needed for learning and self-control, and help schools to become supportive places students and staff.

Trauma-Informed Health Care

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, trauma-informed health care is grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma, that emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors, and that creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment.

Trauma-Informed systems in health care organization also help staff better manage the stress they are exposed to, including how to recognize and then manage their own trauma based reactions and  triggers in a way that supports their own, and the clients/patients they are working with. Creating trauma-informed health care organizations helps with increased staff retention, decreased number of critical incidents, and increased client/patient engagement in treatment planning and adherence.

Trauma-Informed Justice System

Trauma-informed justice systems train staff to understand the impact of trauma, explore how work practices may re-traumatize individuals and families in their system, and identify alternative systems that seek to build resiliency and the likelihood of successful intervention or rehabilitation efforts. Trauma-informed practices in the justice system include providing compassion and concern for the safety of the public, well-being of the victim, and betterment of the person charged with the crime using evidence-based practices from social, behavioral, and neurological sciences.

Trauma-Informed Congregations

There are current initiatives within communities to adopt trauma-informed practices within faith-based congregations.