Tips to bring trauma-informed practices to life in your organizations

So You’re Trauma-Informed - What’s Next for Your Org? By La Krisha Dillard

This fall, I participated as a panelist in the virtual Contra Costa ACEs Network of Care Convening. We came together as 150 practitioners across the county who want to be part of a system of care that is just, healing, and trustworthy. (Check out a recording of the convening here [LINK].) So much of this work is inside-out work, and I’ve built my own toolkit of self-care and emotional support so that I can be who I need to be in showing up for the families I work with. That fall convening really focused on that inner work, which is so important. But there’s a whole world of work we can also do with our colleagues and organizations to build a trauma-informed system of care.

Find Your People

I participated in the Contra Costa First 5 Trauma Apprentice Program along with another member of my organization, Kerry Armstrong, LCSW, who is a Director at The Lynn Center Children and Family Services. As Fellows of the Trauma Apprentice Program, we have done this walk together of learning about and deepening our trauma-informed practices. Kerry and I could bounce ideas off of one another and tap each of our strengths and positioning in the organization to put trauma-informed practices on the radar of our agency’s leadership. 

Make the Case to Leadership for YOUR Organization

I teamed up with Kerry to present clear ideas to our agency management about the need to become more trauma-informed. We both worked for a health and educational organization that is often a pillar, if not the lead agency, in programming for the early childhood intervention community. Given all the data on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), we needed to ensure that we weren’t exacerbating traumas that our young constituents may have already experienced. If any organization needed to be trauma informed, it was ours.

Kerry and I approached our agency leaders with ACEs data and leading practitioners’ recommendations for addressing them. We drew on the wisdom of our 18+ years in the field to clearly illustrate the pitfalls created by loosely-fitting mental health interventions that are administered without a trauma-informed lens. Given we serve the 0-5 population, we made our pitch strong and impactful by highlighting the ACEs data with health disparities/brain development, preschool to prison pipeline, and zero tolerance data.

Draw on Your Experience

Just as important as the data backing us up was our own experiences about our failed practices and the feelings of regret we had. When we presented to our agency’s leadership, we also reflected back on our work as individuals, now having learned about trauma-informed practices. We were able to identify our own agency’s trauma-inducing factors and implored our management teams and directors to create practices to assess our own trauma health as an organization. 

Bring Staff Along with Existing Resources

Lastly, we collaborated with First 5 Contra Costa, who led our trauma apprentice program, to create a plan for training staff at our agency. We planned and delivered the very same modules to our Mental Health Division that First 5 Contra Costa delivered to Kerry and me when we were Trauma Apprentice Program. We integrated a clinical supervision piece to keep the coaching going. 

Stay Engaged with a Broader Trauma-Informed Community

Kerry and I continue to stay connected to support each other in this work and receive on-going mentoring/support. Since then we have created additional cafe-style training to delve deeper into specific issues. We have made the modules a part of our agency practicum each year as a whole. 

Now that we have some awareness of the importance of trauma-informed and healing practices, it is hard to go backwards...our understanding and our hearts won't let us! Our agency is continuing to move forward by hooking into the Contra Costa ACEs Network. I’m a member of one of the CCAN’s Trauma Informed Leadership Teams, and as a liaison for my organization, I’m learning about the needs and challenges of other organizations in the county, as well as opportunities to partner with others to make our entire county more healing and trauma-informed. 

I’m always learning, and would love to hear from this community about other pointers and ideas you have for bringing trauma-informed practices to life in your organizations. Please leave your thoughts in the comments!