Thank you to Kenneth Fowlkes and Sofia Noncent-Johnson from the Department of Children and Families’ Office of Resilience for a wonderful presentation on how they are working to make the state of New Jersey more trauma-informed. New Jersey is one of the few states in the nation that has recognized the importance of how trauma affects our everyday lives and how critical it is that state agencies, community organizations, schools, and businesses be able to address their needs and the needs of those they serve through trauma-informed services. By understanding what trauma is, how it affects our everyday lives, and how we can help better serve ourselves, others, and our communities through a trauma-informed approach, we can build stronger ties and strengthen those around us.
What is Trauma?
There are many different forms of trauma and they can all affect us in different ways; no 2 people respond to the same type of trauma in the same exact way. Trauma occurs when we experience a stressful, frightening, or disturbing event that is difficult to cope with. The result of that trauma can manifest itself in a variety of ways.
The human body generally responds in 1 of 5 different ways to trauma:
- Fight
- Flight
- Freeze
- Flop
- Fawn
These responses can manifest themselves in a variety of ways, from anger, anxiety, irritability, confusion, withdrawal, etc. Physical conditions can develop such as headaches, nausea, shortness of breath, etc. Recognizing these symptoms as not just reactions to a situation, but of an ingrained response to trauma, can help us better deal with individuals who may be experiencing them.
ACEs
Our responses to trauma are deeply grounded in our personal experiences, ranging from our childhood, to culture, to community. There are three main groups of traumatic experiences that form the basis for our response to trauma:
- Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Maternal Depression
- Emotional and Sexual Abuse
- Substance Abuse
- Domestic Violence
- Physical and Emotional Neglect
- Divorce
- Mental Illness
- Incarceration
- Homelessness
- Adverse Community Experiences
- Poverty and Violence
- Poor Housing Quality and Affordability
- Discrimination
- Lack of Social Capital
- Lack of Economic Mobility
- Lack of Opportunity
- Atrocious Cultural Experiences
- Genocide
- Slavery
- Colonization
- Forced Family Separation
- Segregation
- Harmful Social Norms
Trauma is extremely complex and can stem from a multitude of issues which is why it is important to become a more trauma-informed society.
Current Efforts
The NJ Office of Resilience is committed to transforming New Jersey into a trauma-informed state through a variety of programs. Microgrants have been awarded to 48 organizations to support programs aimed at strengthening their communities. 8 police departments are currently undertaking youth initiatives to strengthen their bonds with the community and better understand how individuals in those communities respond to trauma so that their policing efforts are more trauma-informed. They have sponsored a youth conference as well as a faith-based symposium to foster conversations on how trauma has affected those groups and strategies that can be used to navigate those difficult experiences.
Future Efforts
Though a small group of 7 people, the NJ Office of Resilience has a robust plan for their future efforts. They are currently working on creating healing-centered continuum definitions to aid those who are working directly with individuals suffering from trauma as well as those organizations looking to build trauma-informed policies and procedures into their daily routines. They are also fine-tuning a TRUST Assessment Tool that can be used to determine how well an organization has incorporated trauma-informed methods into their operations. There are going to be opportunities for free training sessions on how to identify trauma, ways to respond to trauma, and how to help organizations take a more trauma-informed approach to their operations.
More Information
If you would like more information about the NJ Office of Resilience, their services, and/or their resources, please visit https://www.nj.gov/dcf/resilience.html or contact Kenneth Fowlkes at Kenneth.Fowlkes@dcf.nj.gov. You can view a recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/N0w0A1AjrNo.
