What is Trauma Informed Community Development?
Trauma informed community development acknowledges the impact trauma has on communities and strives to mitigate those effects. Many communities experience traumas such as violence, poverty, and racism, which can prevent people from building trust with their neighbors or participating in civic life. Using trauma informed tools and practices, we hope to eliminate some of those barriers by fostering connections between residents, bolstering community resilience and promoting emotional intelligence.
Background
This curriculum was created through a collaboration between Impact and NKCDC. For 3 years, we engaged in a participatory, co-design process with Kensington residents. Through workshops and meetings, residents offered input and feedback to shape the curriculum to best suit the needs of the neighborhood. Out of that process, Michael O’Bryan and Rebecca Fabiano, created a curriculum that educates participants on trauma and its effects, and offers tools to build resilience and increase emotional intelligence.
Curriculum
There are three goals of this project: to educate community members on the prevalence and impact of trauma, to equip them with trauma informed skills, and to ready them to teach the curriculum to others. The curriculum contains five modules, consisting of multiple workshops, covering topics such as stress, emotions and leadership. Through the participatory process, we realized a train-the-trainer model would create sustainability by ensuring that community members were the driving force behind dissemination. The curriculum, therefore, is designed to teach participants about trauma and to build the skills necessary to lead workshops of their own. Each workshop has clear instructions for how to plan workshops, teach the material and lead conversations.
Who We Are
New Kensington Community Development Corporation advances social equity and economic empowerment by nurturing and creating opportunities for residents to live and actively shape their neighborhoods of choice.
Impact Services is a community action organization mobilizing people and resources to create connected, resilient, thriving communities. Impact offers community and economic development, workforce development and training services, and housing for veterans and their families.
Supporters
Scattergood Foundation
Philadelphia LISC
Michael O’Bryan
The Village of Arts and Humanities
Dr. Sandra Bloom
Joseph Foderaro
NeighborWorks America
Claneil Foundation
RWJ County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
The Mayor’s Fund
Dr. Natasha Fletcher
Rebecca Fabiano
Please Use This Form to Download the Curriculum
We made this work free because we want it to reach as many people as possible. Some of the materials included in the curriculum are copyrighted and used with the permission of the original authors. Out of respect for their work, as well as in keeping with our intent, we ask that the curriculum be used in ways that are always free and widely available to anyone who is interested.