Building a Trauma Informed Care Approach for Afterschool Programs & Community-based Organizations

Source: Afterschool Alliance

Many of the young people we work with in afterschool have suffered from individual or collective trauma. Below we share a blog from the Afterschool Alliance entitled, Building a trauma informed care approach for afterschool programs & community-based organizations, by Jennifer Smith, afterschool program manager at the Center for Community Health Advancement, Marshfield Clinic Health System.

“Recently, schools, afterschool programs, and community-based organizations have shared the increasing numbers of disruptive and challenging youth in their programs. Developed in 2018, the Wisconsin Afterschool Network has been part of the solution by providing the Trauma Informed Care course, designed to elevate the level of programming provided to youth by helping staff learn how to understand, address, and mitigate that behavior — with practical recommendations for every day on-site use.

Trauma Informed Care Principles (adapted from Wisconsin Department of Human Services and Department of Public Instruction) include:

• Safety – An environment where kids feel physically, emotionally, and culturally safe; helps kids regulate and fosters relationship building. Important components of this are staff to youth ratios and physical space. Fifty youth with two adult leaders in a large open area does not create an environment of safety; smaller ratios and access to soft, comfortable spaces creates a safer environment and helps to support youth’s ability to better regulate.
• Trustworthiness – Programming is predictable and consistent; youth know what to expect when arriving at the program. Staff “walk the talk” to alleviate any fear or anxiety that may be created by the unknown.
• Choice – Abuse and neglect are experiences which steal an individual’s autonomy and ability to make choices for oneself. Providing opportunities for youth to have choice within programming (youth can choose from activity options) and choice in directives (it’s homework time, you can sit at the table or grab a clipboard and go to the rug) can help fill that void. These choices allow for autonomy while giving youth multiple options to get to where it is we want them to go (getting out their homework).
• Collaboration – The understanding that learning happens in relationships; staff who intentionally work to make all youth feel like they belong and help youth to develop new skills allows for greater social-emotional learning. In addition, supporting parents and working with other agencies (such as schools, therapists, or social workers) builds a net of support for youth.
• Empowerment – The lifting up of youth’s strengths and an understanding that troubling behavior patterns have served the youth in some capacity. Acknowledging the behaviors they have developed and helping them reframe those behaviors can be an incredibly powerful message. The idea that “sassy” is the strength of advocating for your needs and helping youth to find more successful ways to exercise those strengths is empowering and more likely to illicit skill development than rewards or punishment.

Building Staff Capacity
A significant portion of the coursework also asks staff to do some self-reflection. We encourage staff to ask questions like

• How regulated are you?
• Are you modeling behaviors you would like to see reflected by youth?
• How did you learn your social-emotional skills?

Social-emotional learning is a lifelong journey. Adults modeling their own learning by openly articulating their thought process when trying to solve a problem, or talking about how they are managing challenging emotions, can be transformative for youth —particularly youth whose familial models may not have strong social-emotional skills themselves. All social-emotional learning happens through modeling and observation, along with reinforcement at the right times.

As extra-familial adults in the lives of youth, we can be a strong influence through our modeling and reinforcement of social-emotional skills. For example, do you yell across the room to redirect youth, or do you respectfully approach youth who may need some behavior guidance and ask them what is going on and how you can help? Along with the understanding of the importance of social-emotional learning is the notion that challenging behavior is often the result of a lack of skill. A child who becomes upset and acts out often doesn’t have the ability to more skillfully manage their emotions; this provides an opportunity for guidance and learning rather than a time for punishment. The lens through which we view children who have challenging behaviors shifts, making us more empathic and more likely to take the time to slow down and help kids understand and manage their feelings more effectively.”

 

MORE ABOUT...

Jennifer Smith has been with Marshfield Clinic Health System since 2014.  She has worked in spaces supporting children and adolescents for over 25 years.  Jennifer began as a public-school teacher, transitioned to a community-based youth program and now supports out-of-school time programs and program staff throughout the state of Wisconsin in her work with the Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance. Jennifer has worked in spaces supporting children and adolescents for over 25 years.  Jennifer began as a public-school teacher, transitioned to a community-based youth program and now supports out-of-school time programs and program staff throughout the state of Wisconsin in her work with the Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance.  

Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance (WOSTA), a program of the Marshfield Clinic Region of Sanford Health, is dedicated to fostering quality out-of-school time (OST) programming across Wisconsin. They believe in the transformative power of OST programs to positively impact the lives of children and families in our communities.