City-Wide Trauma Awareness, Sensitivity and Healing Through Relationships
Section 1
1.1 Vision: Growing Cork as a Trauma-Sensitive City A trauma-sensitive city approach is a commitment to all citizens, not just children. It endorses and supports relationships, practices and environments that promote safety, predictability, empowerment, and control (Nicholson et al ., 2019; Jedd et al ., 2015). Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) and a trauma-sensitive approach support a deeper understanding and awareness of the prevalence and role that trauma plays in people’s lives, and that healing comes from responsive relationships. Through the integration of this knowledge and understanding into the fabric of our daily way of working, we promote resilience and understanding (Butler, 2020). 1.2 Mission: to promote city-wide trauma awareness, sensitivity, and healing through relationships. This strategy aims to develop and establish a bespoke trauma framework at a city-wide level that will serve to support statutory, community, voluntary organisations and local communities in the development of principles and practices with regard to becoming trauma-sensitive. This framework will comprise the development of a bespoke training programme and bespoke toolkit that will be developed for, and offered to, all partner organisations at an individual and city-wide level. The mission is to promote city-wide trauma awareness, sensitivity and healing with a focus on relationships. 1.3 Values and Principals of becoming Trauma- Sensitive For Cork City to become trauma- sensitive, we must • realise the widespread impact of trauma and understand potential paths for recovery; • recognise signs and symptoms in our citizens who are involved with the systems that operate within the city; • respond by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into our policies, procedures, practices, and • seek to actively resist re-traumatisation (Trauma and Justice Strategic Network; SAMSHA, 2014). A city that holds a trauma lens at its core holds the values of trauma-sensitive practice as one that is 1) safe, 2) person-centred, 3) kind in its responses, 4) works collaboratively and 5) is empowering and recognises 6) resilience within a person, family, and community . (Adapted from Envisioning Plymouth as a Trauma-Informed City). Treisman (2018) advocates, we need to create services that consider, acknowledge, and integrate our understanding of adverse adult experiences, adverse community experiences, adverse cultural experiences and adverse organizational experiences 1.4 What is a Trauma-Sensitive Approach? A Trauma-sensitive recognises the prevalence and impact of trauma, the role trauma plays in people’s lives and most importantly, advocates that healing from trauma is through relationships. (Butler, Clerkin & Cummins et al ., 2022) Fundamentally, a city-wide approach to understanding the prevalence and impact of trauma across the lifespan necessitates understanding the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and trauma within organisations and communities, along with the interaction and experiences of the individual within those structures.
Cork Trauma Sensitive City
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