Expand the trauma-informed, healing-centered workforce

CTIPP supports a paradigm shift to engender a more just, equitable, healthy, resilient, and trauma-informed world. The goal demands recognition that individual, organizational, community, collective, and institutional/systemic narratives often include trauma and/or adversity.

We must then deliberately establish and implement mechanisms to notice, acknowledge, respond to, address, and (where appropriate) treat trauma and adversity. A vital piece of our change theory involves expanding the trauma-informed, healing-centered workforce. Developing the workforce should also include ensuring that those who interface with people who have lived experience can engage in ways that decrease the likelihood of re-traumatization.

Efforts to provide prevention, healing, and growth opportunities begin with accessible, equitable, and quality postsecondary education and training. They must include education, training, accountability, and reflectivity among the existing and emerging workforce. They must also develop and sustain meaningful structural supports that address secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and other occupational hazards frequently encountered and/or experienced among those who interface with trauma.

CTIPP SUPPORTS:

Devise requirements for higher education institutions and governing/administrative bodies to devise and implement standards that cultivate a trauma-informed environment for learners
Destigmatize, incentivize, and provide accessible, equitable pathways for trade school and the pursuit of trades-related careers
Increase diverse representation among the workforce—and particularly in organizational/systems leadership—to buoy trust, safety, and empowerment among populations, groups, and communities with lived experience as marginalized, oppressed, disenfranchised, or otherwise excluded or underrepresented
Establish standards for relevant degrees and other higher educational programming to require foundational knowledge on trauma in the curriculum to maintain accreditation
Expand funding so workforce boards can forge intentional partnerships to cultivate more trauma-informed ecosystems in communities nationwide
Encourage certification boards in relevant fields, disciplines, and sectors to make knowledge of trauma and trauma-informed approaches a requirement for certification or recertification

RESOURCES

Fund and require training for all staff—not just clinical or direct service staff—in organizations, agencies, and entities that interface with people with lived experience
Provide pathways and paid opportunities for people with lived experience to work in peer support and other such roles
Establish standards to facilitate workforce wellness and reduce the possibility of harm/re-traumatization (E.G., requirements to limit caseloads, mandating breaks, dedicated spaces for breaks, implementing trauma-informed supervision/consultation, accessible and affordable health supports, etc.)
Engage workforce leaders in education efforts to emphasize the importance of trauma-informed approaches and provide technical assistance to support leaders implementing trauma-informed change
Provide mechanisms to support volunteer education and responsiveness to trauma in organizations, agencies, and other entities that rely on volunteers to operate
Support the establishment of and awareness about local entities, agencies, organizations, and practitioners that provide trauma treatment among the workforce such that, when they recognize signs and symptoms of trauma, they can provide appropriate recommendations and referrals
Establish requirements to establish policies, procedures, and support mechanisms to cultivate staff resilience and address the impact of the work among those who interface with trauma in their job roles
Implore the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to establish secondary traumatic stress/vicarious trauma as an occupational hazard and establish regulatory mechanisms accordingly