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Here in Camden, NJ, we are preparing a two day conference to be aimed at "those who know know trauma."  What we mean by this is that it seems that many in our community say things like "The Violence is overwhelming" or "I know that people are impacted by abuse."  However, what seems difficult is to move from an understanding of the individual to a systemic understanding of our community.  What we want to do in this two day workshop is present an analysis of our community using the ACES and underlying Attachment Theory to "retell" the story of who we are today.  We will be presenting ACES and Attachment Theory and then describing how much of our communal behavior can be seen as coping mechanisms to complex trauma.  We want to "represent" many of our social worries using a framework undergirded by ACES and Attachment Theory (TIC).  

Our goal is to take an audience who often looks at the individual and to put into play the systemic.  I know it might sound self-evident, but we are finding here that openness to TIC often remains at the level of the individual.  It is our premise that moving to the communal is essential for creating and sustaining healthy communities.  Organizations that are working in situations of overwhelming neglect, endemic poverty and structural injustice often are experiencing vicarious trauma and don't have tools to name it or work with it.  It is our belief here that our community structures--albeit parents, teachers, police, government officials, etc. are often managing from places of vicarious trauma.  Without a systemic understanding of what is happening to us, it is difficult to change.  The hope of our conference is to first define the systemic impact of trauma in the community and then to offer possible next steps to work with it.  
To do this, we are inviting some programs who are working creatively with TIC---specifically Sanctuary and the SELF model.  Previous to this, we had a day long trauma summit here and showed some video clips of folks like a  warden, a principal, a doctor--who were talking about TIC and the application that they were making in their work.  It is our hope to find specifically address:
Parenting
Eduction
Job Development
Hunger
Drugs
Government Incompetence/Neglect
Drugs
Early Childhood care
using TIC framework with special emphasis on vicarious trauma. 
We are looking for suggestions--especially videos/video clips of people who tell stories about working from these areas using TIC. Any help, resources or ideas you might have would be most welcome!
Thanks,
Jeff Putthoff, SJ
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Hi Jeff,

If you have the capability to extract clips I recommend this video for specific parenting techniques. They are targeted for foster parents but they are just examples of good trauma-informed parenting.

Education video: Resilient: The School Discipline Revolution in Walla   Walla, WA - examples given (TRT 11 min).

For Govt abuse I would recommend this video on PREA; real-life examples of survivor-centered treatment.. Again, you'd need to extract clips.

For drug addiction I would recommend this video which has Russell Brand and his mentor talking at a UK govt hearing about drug addiction from the survivor's perspective. Again, you would have to extract clips.

This video (see the comments) is a crowd favorite on the topic of attachment and society. I'm thinking it could go under your Early Childhood care heading. Great 14 min overview (no specific techniques mentioned) by Gabor Mate, MD. 

This 21 min video talks about vicarious trauma. I'm not sure if it could work for you but it's what we have on transforming vicarious trauma.

I want to add this video though it doesn't fall under any of your topics. It features a young man who articulates how he was treated in a trauma-informed manner being in a state custody home for kids. His mentor is featured along side him and they both have great stories to tell. Again, you'd have to extract. I can't remember if he talks about getting a job. I think he might. So it might work for you under that heading.

You may want to check Shery Mead's role playing videos here. She specializes in teaching intentional peer support.

If I think of any others, I will post.

best, chris

 

FYI, if one has or creates their own You Tube channel, one can use the following editing feature via the Playlist application:

Advanced playlist features and strategies

Feature: Start and End Time 

Find it: In Edit Playlist

 

What it does: Sets the “in” and “out” points for any video in a playlist. Allows you to create a seamless curated experience, highlighting and connecting select moments in videos. This feature is especially useful if your videos include repetitive opening titles and credits; you can use it to omit these portions of your videos.

http://www.youtube.com/yt/playbook/playlists.html

I believe that all of the videos I listed are on You Tube with the exception of the video on vicarious trauma.

 

Jeff, if you haven't already, you might contact Leslie Lieberman at the Multiplying Connections Initiative in Philadelphia. She specializes in vicarious trauma, and may have more suggestions of people, organizations, videos, to add to Chris' great suggestions.

Cheers, Jane

This is exactly the resource I need to help forward community capacity ideas. I am trained in  p c I t and recently also the circle of security parent education program and I want to help with early intervention and prevention in my community. We are early in the process in Iowa so there are not yet a lot of model programs. I am looking forward to this information and hope to hear when the summit is scheduled. 

Wow!  Where is this conference going to be?  I'd love to be present, as a parent, and as an advocate trying to reach into the silos of youth-serving organizations that are structurally inept and unable to adapt to the real needs of children to be safe, of parents' need to know their children come first, and of a community who fails to see how its structures are letting down our society over and over and over again, without recognizing it, seeing it, or being willing to do anything about it.  It's crushing our potential.

Oh, thank you...I think I said I'd love "to be present", but hey, if you want a childhood sexual abuse survivor to talk about how my family traumas have affected generations, relationships, etc. or how I've turned my personal loses into a fierce passion for prevention, I'm here for you.  You aren't too far away - a couple of hours.  When is it going to be - or do you know yet? I'm also passionate about ACEs & trauma-informed care - I see the big picture in a real way.

Hello Jeff,

A question: what does TIC mean? Trauma Informed Care? or Trauma Informed Community? or???

And wow - you're tackling a lot of subjects. I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for - my thinking goes down the path of how a community might re-think some basic assumptions/structures. Perhaps some of these links will help:

On parenting, please see my blog post on support and help for parents - noting especially that parents themselves make good choices about what kind of support they need (communities should avoid one-size-fits all "solutions.").

http://acesconnection.com/profiles/blogs/support-and-help-for-parents

The recent New York Times blog by David Bornstein - Protecting Children From Toxic Stress - has a wonderful description of the Child First program, which sends helpers to parents and asks them what they need (a very different approach than arriving to tell parents what to do).

 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/protecting-children-from-toxic-stress/

On the Child First website, there is a short video:

http://www.childfirst.com/index.php

The Child First model is being expanded to other states.

Also, on parenting - the significance of Mother-Friendly Maternity Care:

http://www.motherfriendly.org/

On education, on the harm done by many schools, on positive changes -- and on alternatives to schooling:

Rethinking Schools -  http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml

Cloaking Inequality -Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig writes about inequality, the psychological harm of high-stakes testing, failings of Teach for America and charter schools - http://cloakinginequity.com/

Increasing numbers of U.S. parents are choosing homeschooling. Here's a site about John Holt, whose observations and writing about children and learning inspired many homeschoolers.  http://www.johnholtgws.com/

On the importance of play: Researcher Alison Gopnik, Ph.D. of the University of California speaks out about how important it is "to give children's remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein" and avoid "school for babies."

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/03/why_preschool_shouldnt_be_like_school.html

On play and play spaces: The Alliance for Childhood has several videos, including this one on Adventure Playgrounds, which began in England after WWII and have a philosophy of allowing children to play freely, with risk, with a minimum of interference from adults: http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/playwork_video

on historical trauma and the emotional emancipation of Black people:

Community Healing Network - http://communityhealingnet.com/

Enola Aird, cofounder of CHN, wrote this article - Toward a Renaissance for the African-American Family: Confronting the Lie of Black Inferiority - http://www.law.emory.edu/fileadmin/journals/elj/58/58.1/Aird.pdf

And finally - part of my work with the nonprofit organization Family and Home Network is in advocating for parents and children regarding their need for generous amounts of time together - here is my guest blog on inclusive family policies: http://assets.newamerica.net/blogposts/2013/equality_and_justice_for_all_families-87691

-Catherine

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