Create Conditions for All to Thrive

What changes would we make if we viewed social issues through a trauma-informed lens? Acknowledging trauma and its impact underpins our ability to respond in a more compassionate way.  Rather than “treating” specific behaviors, we embrace an approach that helps the whole person, families, and communities heal:

Transform conditions

To promote healing and thriving, we can can continuously work to transform the conditions that reinforce people’s lived experience of trauma, limiting beliefs about each other, and other forms of oppression and injustice. It is important to build and promote environments that acknowledge hardships and disparities, provide space for trauma healing, promote resilience-building, and create conditions for all to thrive.

Understanding intersectionalities 

We should also be aware of systemic violence and create spaces that break with these cycles of hardship. By systemic violence, we refer to social or institutional practices that adversely affect a group of people: 

• psychologically or mentally

• culturally

• economically

• spiritually

• or physically 

It is important to recognize that many adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and historical trauma are strongly related to systemic violence. By not acknowledging racism, violence in communities, poverty or other forms of systemic violence, we may inadvertently be increasing a person’s physical and felt sense of vulnerability. 

Another dimension to more fully understand people and communities’ experiences is by understanding the intersectionalities that are present. Intersectionalities is a framework developed by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. By intersectionalities, she means when people have multiple intersecting social identities that can lead to an experience of disadvantage, discrimination or oppression:

Intersecting disadvantages can make certain groups of people more vulnerable. It is important we are constantly checking in to make sure we are reducing harm, building systems of care that provide safety, fostering trusting relationships, empowering people, and creating collaborations to actively prevent and support healing from toxic stress and trauma.

To dig more into how we can disentangle intersectionalities visit this module.

Building trauma-informed communities 

A trauma-informed community is one where all players come together as partners (schools, community organizations, communities of faith, government agencies, and local businesses) to develop common goals that foster healing and well-being for everyone who forms part of that community. Resilient Communities Wisconsin shares four elements that can help us to develop a more trauma-informed community (1):

Let’s think about ways in which we can start building collective action within our communities:

• Who makes up your community? 

• How do these partners or potential partners collaborate? 

• What are the dynamics between them? 

• What are each partner’s strengths? 

• How can we as partners integrate services to better support people (i.e. who is doing what, what works, what are each group’s resources and strengths, avoid competition or redundant services, facilitate support services)? 

• What resources can partners share with each other?

• How can we develop or enhance continuous communication between partners?

Sources:

1. Resilient Communities Wisconsin - https://www.resilientcommunitieswi.com

Module Purpose | Revisiting Our Commitments | 3 E’s of Trauma | 4 R’s Key Assumptions | Guiding Principles | Create Conditions for All to Thrive | Final Thoughts