Report written by Yutian Wang, TDN Development Assistant. April 4, 2014

Have you seen on TV that a criminal blamed his criminal behaviors on his sad childhood? This is a typical example of trauma: a harmful event that causes adverse effect on a person’s life. We may not be able to prevent trauma. However, we do have ability to create pleasant events that influence people’s life positively – and this is what Trandisapora Network is doing now.

The webinar “Recognizing and Responding to Trauma: The ACE Study and Trauma-Informed Care” was hosted by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and was organized in three sections: Introduction to National Prevention Strategy; Understanding the Impact of Trauma; and Enhancing a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System.

Section I. National Prevention Strategy

There are four segments in the National Prevention Strategy.

1) Healthy & Safe Community Environment: this approach focuses on external environment in a neighborhood such as air and housing.

2) Clinical and Community Preventive Services: evidence-based preventive services are effective and can be reinforced by community-based programs. (i.e. what Transdiaspora Network is doing now regarding HIV prevention in the Brooklyn area.)

3) Elimination of Health Disparities: health disparities, caused by social factors such as race and socio-economic status, are tractable and can be reduced or eliminated with focused commitment and effort. Through analyzing data of HIV/AIDS cases in Brooklyn, I found out that the Brooklyn-based neighborhoods having the highest HIV infection rate are associated with high poverty rate, and have poor access to HIV prevention knowledge is partly due to poverty. Therefore, equipping youth with indispensable HIV prevention knowledge is critical since it helps them to make healthy choice.

4) Empowered People: when people are empowered, especially youth, they are able to take an active role not only in improving health, but also in leading community change.

Section II. Understanding the Impact of Trauma

This section introduces trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). According to SAMSHA (2012), individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically and emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being. There are six key principles fundamental to a Trauma-Informed Approach: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice and choice; and cultural, historical and gender issues. I felt that our organization’s RIPPLE Program also follows this framework, but the difference here is that regardless of ACE status of the youth we work with, our program creates a positive atmosphere, allowing them to communicate, share and learn.

Section III. Enhancing a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System

This section mainly introduces Kempe-Denver Department of Human Services Trauma Informed Practice program. There are three goals in the program: a) universal trauma screening for children and youth; b) implementation of trauma-focused evidence based

mental health treatment services for providers; and c) a comprehensive training and consultation program in trauma-informed response and care for all professional and family providers.

From the webinar, I learned the detailed knowledge of trauma, and realized that how a single event can influence a child or youth’s life when he is growing. To avoid trauma and its adverse effect, we can: on one hand, protect children from experiences that may cause trauma, which actually is hard to achieve; on the other hand, popularize Trauma-Informed Approach through community-based programs. However, I think if a bad experience can cause trauma, then a pleasant experience also can exert positive effects on a child. Hence what we need is not only programs that focus on trauma, but also programs that bring delightful and inspiring experiences.

I was impressed by a Maya Angelou’s quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Youth participants at Transdiaspora Network’s innovative programs may forget the specific knowledge about HIV/AIDS after decades. However, they will always remember the feelings of their experiences (i.e. self-awareness, self-respect, trust in families and friends), which will help themselves in the future and communities as well.