Topic: Trauma Informed Practice
Description:
Many services are operating in the ways they have always done--ways that were designed a generation ago, or, in some cases, were never intentionally designed at all. Learning to provide trauma-informed services requires assessing and reimagining many different areas of our organizations and services. It’s a process of envisioning how we could change longstanding organizational practices and processes and, in some cases, the mental models which underpin these practices and processes. The research that exists about how to shift towards a trauma-informed service model is very clear--building internal ‘hubs’ of knowledge and change capacity is the most effective approach. Once organizations have these internal ‘hubs’, they are able to successfully re-envision problematic areas and optimize their services for clients who have experienced harm. This course takes participants through a facilitated, interactive and supported process to become internal ‘hubs’ of knowledge and capacity within their organizations. Becoming trauma-informed involves reviewing and re-imagining practices that we have learned to take for granted (for example, our intake practices, how we close off client relationships, or the kind of group coach
ing we offer). This course will take participants through the process of reviewing and re-imagining one of their agency’s key practices using a trauma-informed lens. This supported learning-by-doing will enable participants to gain the skills and experience they need to re-envision and re-work agency processes according to a trauma-informed model.
Learning Objectives
After this course, participants will be able to:
Use case studies and examples to describe common agency practices that are problematic for clients with histories of harm
Explain, using examples, how problematic agency practices can be re-designed with a trauma-informed lens to be more inclusive
Review their agency’s service delivery blueprint and identify process pain points/places where clients with histories of harm often struggle or drop off
Use trauma-informed principles and promising practices to suggest changes to agency processes
Identify common blockers to implementing trauma-informed changes and reflect on ways to work creatively with these blockers
Implement their suggested process
changes as a pilot and gather feedback
Develop accessible communications in order to share and explain re-imagined processes with colleagues and management
Participants will emerge with a new map for how to deliver an existing service in a more trauma-informed way, and some tools for sharing this new map with their colleagues.
Who is this course for?
This course is designed for employment and training service providers who have the responsibility within their agency to shape and change organizational practices that affect clients. Participants can be frontline, managerial or executive level. What is most important is that participants have the ability to implement the changes they are developing via this course. Delivery Time and Method
This is a 10 module course.
Because this course involves serv
ice redesign, piloting and iteration, it is delivered over 20 weeks, so that participants have time to implement as they go and get real-time feedback.
Each module includes 4 hours of live calls, and up to 6 hours of take-home work.
This course is capped at 14 participants, with smaller moment-focused peer groups of no more than 4. Cohorts are built to intentionally create peer groups that will focus on similar moments.
We suggest, if possible, that participants attend in pairs from the same agency. This makes the piloting and iteration process less labour-intensive and produces a stronger internal hub of capacity.
Participants will receive
A electronic certificate of completion
A electronic workbook with reading and exercises
The facilitation and delivery of an online learning community
Participant pre- and post-learning assessments and anonymous surveys