Communities of color in particular have experienced a traumatic history of structural violence, interpersonal racism, segregation, and oppression. The unjust history of structural violence and the deleterious treatment of people and cultures in the U.S., that in part stems from neoliberal policies and rationality, continues to plague communities and people within the food system. Many people and communities are working to actualize the social-ethical ideal of a non-violent 'beloved community' to counter this unjust history and expand the boundaries of what is possible for individuals and society. Historical and systemic injustices ramify the adverse experiences and trauma affecting vulnerable people's lives. The effects and pervasiveness of individual and collective trauma at a global scale has highlighted a serious need for broader-scale awareness and adoption of a trauma-informed care approach by community food work organizations, practitioners, and social change leaders. A trauma-informed care approach was developed as a health care framework based on the importance of adverse childhood events to poor distal health and mental health outcomes. Without a deeper understanding of how extensive the collective impact of such trauma and injustice is on people and the food system; community food work researchers and practitioners may reify uninformed responses that result in continued trauma and injustice. However, there are few examples of community food work organizations using a trauma-informed care approach as an organizational change process to promote community transformation and resilience. This research examined and specifically analyzed how a community food work organization that is engaged in mutual aid and social-ecological activism embodies trauma-informed care; engenders an agential change space; and grapples with the aspirations and tensions of being an organization seeking to ameliorate the effects of anthropogenic trauma and expand the boundaries of what is possible individually and collectively. A narrative inquiry methodology was used to critically explore and study the perceptions and thoughts of 17 study participants of how a trauma-informed approach to care is embodied and agential change space provided as mutual aid and community food work. The seventeen study participants' narratives were coded and analyzed using the Principles of a Trauma-Informed Care Framework defined by SAMHSA (2014), Bowen and Murshid (2016), and Hecht et al (2018). The narrative inquiry of seventeen narratives demonstrated that an integrated trauma-informed care approach as an organizational change process is essential to the formation of agential change space and has wide-reaching applicability to mutual aid efforts and community food work pedagogy and praxis, especially as organizations and practitioners confront ongoing systemic trauma and injustices that have resulted from structural violence and continue to persist due to the dominant hegemonic neoliberal framing that exists in relation to race, gender, and socioeconomic class. / Doctor of Philosophy / Communities of color in particular have experienced a traumatic history of structural violence, interpersonal racism, segregation, and oppression. The unjust history of structural violence and the deleterious treatment of people and cultures in the U.S., that in part stems from neoliberal policies and rationality, continues to plague communities and the food system. Many people and communities are working to actualize the social-ethical ideal of a non-violent 'beloved community' to counter this unjust history and expand the boundaries of what is possible individually and collectively. Without a deeper understanding of how extensive the collective impact of such trauma and injustice is on people and the food system; community food work researchers and practitioners may reify uninformed responses that result in continued trauma and injustice. However, there are few examples of community food work organizations using a trauma-informed care approach as an organizational change process to promote food system transformation. This research examined the ecotonal nature of community food work and specifically analyzed how a community food work organization that is engaged in mutual aid and social-ecological activism embodies trauma-informed care; engenders an agential change space; and grapples with the aspirations and tensions of being an organization seeking to ameliorate the effects of anthropogenic trauma and expand the boundaries of what is possible individually and collectively. A case study and narrative inquiry methodology was used to critically explore perceptions and thoughts of 17 study participants and stakeholders of meaningful support as embodying a trauma-informed care approach and participative interaction as engendering agential change space as mutual aid and community food work. The seventeen study participants' narratives were coded and analyzed using the Principles of a Trauma-Informed Care Framework defined by SAMHSA (2014), Bowen and Murshid (2016), and Hecht et al. (2018). The narrative inquiry of seventeen narratives demonstrated that an integrated trauma-informed care approach as an organizational change process is essential to the formation of agential change space and has wide-reaching applicability to mutual aid efforts and community food work as pedagogy and praxis, especially as organizations and practitioners confront ongoing systemic trauma and injustices that have resulted from structural violence and continue to persist due to the dominant hegemonic neoliberal framing that exists in relation to race, gender, and socioeconomic class.

The gun violence epidemic is a deeply complex crisis in America’s cities and urban settings. Despite concerted efforts by government agencies, law enforcement, community organizations, and advocacy groups, gun violence remains a persistent and pervasive problem in the city of Philadelphia. The aims of this writing include a comprehensive analysis of the factors contributing to gun violence in Philadelphia and identification of multi-disciplinary strategies for prevention and intervention. By evaluating existing efforts in Philadelphia, including community-based programs, law enforcement initiatives, and policy reforms, as well as the generation of a theoretical multidisciplinary framework and proposal for gun violence mitigation, this study aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on gun violence prevention and to inform evidence-based policy and practice in Philadelphia and beyond. / Urban Bioethics

This study aims to evaluate the implementation of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) trainings in Johnson City, Tennessee, and the surrounding Appalachian area. Previous TIC trainees were sent an email survey asking them if they had followed through with their plan to implement the training at their place of work or in other areas of their lives. The response rate for this study was 2%, possibly due to extraneous variables such as the Coronavirus Pandemic and the lag time between the initial training and survey follow-up. The responses that were analyzed indicated promise for the practical implementation of TIC concepts at the companies involved in the training initiative. Additional research is needed in order to further analyze TIC implementation.

Rape culture permeates the landscape of post-secondary education throughout Canada. In recent years, student-survivors and advocates have been influential in the creation of provincial legislation mandating colleges and universities to develop stand-alone sexualized violence policies. In British Columbia these policies are to be institutionally reviewed every three years, but there is no clear legislative direction as to how these reviews should be conducted, or how survivors and advocates voices will be included. My thesis examines the impacts of campus sexualized violence and the integral role that student-survivors and their stories play in transforming rape culture. Through the voices of nine University of Victoria student-survivors and five community-based service providers, I demonstrate that student-survivors and those who support them act as both change-agents and subject matter-experts regarding campus rape culture; as such, their inclusion in policy development and review is essential. However, my thesis also demonstrates that student-survivors and advocates navigate an increasingly corporatized post-secondary environment, whereby the stories of student-survivors are considered dangerous to the campus brand and reputation. In taking seriously the trauma associated with sexualized violence and the consequences of the corporate campus, my thesis offers a Trauma Informed Consultation Guideline. This guideline provides a trauma-informed and community based approach to consulting student-survivors in policy review with the intention of creating safer opportunities for story to inform future policy directions. / Graduate

My study examines trauma informed practice (TIP) policies in BC, Canada. My chosen methodology, what is the problem represented to be (WPR) (Bacchi 2009), makes politics visible in policies. I am interested in the effects of trauma policies on women who experience male violence. How does discourse produce certain effects and constitute specific subjects within these texts? I extend a politicized analysis of TIP policies, specifically, an in-depth feminist post structural analysis. I advance an understanding of the effects of policy, particularly for women who have experienced male violence and who receive services under the TIP guidelines. I note the absence of an intersectional analysis and the lack of attention paid to power relations, specifically associated with the provision of care within the health care system, the construction of the traumatized female subject and the absence of a social justice lens in TIP policies. My study addresses the meanings, and resulting practices arising from the TIP policy and its impacts on women's lived experiences. My feminist post structural analysis provides a critique of TIP policies glaringly absent from the literature. I examine available literature, which evaluates TIP. My analysis deepens the understanding of the policy's inherent assumptions by revealing the problem of trauma, as represented in TIP policies. I explore the emergence of the dominant concept of trauma in the completion of a genealogy of trauma. I uncover the commonly accepted trauma ethos, a set of principles and beliefs about violence against women that has set the path for a trauma discourse in BC's guidelines, policies, and programs. I explore my interest in iv the ontology of trauma, the nature of trauma itself and the way of being when trauma has occurred. While exploring this interest through a genealogy of trauma, I identify five historical figures; the traumatized female figure, the assaulted woman figure, the wounded veteran figure, the colonized Indigenous woman figure and the emancipated woman figure. My study explores how women are obscured and invisible in policies intended to address violence against women. I demonstrate that this invisibility results in gender-neutral policies-if there is no gender-based violence- we, therefore, do not have to think of gender-based treatment. The patriarchal erasure of women from trauma policies continually repositions what the problem is represented to be. These policies constitute women as the less valued subjects, fundamentally damaged and flawed. Trauma policies shape women as people who can damage staff; assuming they are a source of trauma infection; they can infect staff with their trauma resulting in vicarious traumatization of staff. Trauma policies characterize the traumatized female subject as fundamentally different from the staff or the professional expert. Only certain kinds of women can be traumatized, the mentally ill and substance-using women. My study exposes the presupposition embedded in policies that only certain women are violated, and other women are unlike them. This trauma discourse is grounded in racism, colonialism and sexism, built on stereotypical patriarchal representations of women, resulting in the stigmatization of women who experience male violence. / Graduate / 2022-08-25

Trauma exposure is endemic, and this study seeks to address childhood trauma in a compassionate and restorative manner. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are serious childhood traumas that manifest as toxic stress which can damage the developing brain of a child and affect overall health. The implications are expressed dualistically: academic performance of youth is subdued & diminished, and behavioral interactions can range from unreceptive to erratic and aggressive. Trauma exposure is a predictor of adverse outcomes, which range from higher rates of suspension, expulsion, and incarceration, to dire outcomes, such as lower life expectancy and quality of life. Streamlining trauma-informed curriculum and restorative behavioral responses will ensure that resilient and nurturing classrooms mediate and heal our nation’s youth. Instead of disproven and punitive, zero-tolerance consequences, schools must familiarize themselves with the effects of trauma, anticipate traumatic reactions, and respond accordingly. This study reveals how trauma-informed care informs trauma-informed curriculum and trauma-sensitive schools. A consistent and effective response to childhood trauma exposure is the missing link in our nation’s educational system.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) assess cycling coaches' trauma-related competencies, as measured by trauma knowledge (i.e., trauma-specific education, familiarity with post-traumatic stress [PTS]), stigma of persons with PTS (i.e., fear/dangerousness, help/interact, forcing treatment, negative emotions), and interpersonal skills (i.e., self-reported emotional intelligence, perceived quality of coach-athlete relationships); and (b) examine the influence that trauma knowledge and stigma of persons with PTS has on coaching efficacy specific to coaching trauma-impacted athletes (i.e., trauma-informed coaching efficacy), after controlling for general coaching experience. Descriptive statistics indicated the majority of coaches had no trauma-specific education, a high degree of familiarity with PTS, and a low level of stigma via four attribution variables. Moreover, participants highly appraised their own emotional intelligence, the quality of their coach-athlete relationships, and their trauma-informed coaching efficacy. A hierarchical regression analyses indicated that familiarity with PTS helped to explain additional variance in trauma-informed coaching efficacy over and above demographic and general coach experience variables. The study establishes trauma-informed coaching as a distinct area of research and highlights the need for improved continuing education opportunities for coaches related to psychological trauma and PTS.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention model designed to enhance practitioners’ biological lens when using a biopsychosocial-spiritual model of holistic assessment and planning. The specific intervention utilized is a course curriculum developed to broaden human service professionals’ (including clinical social work professionals) understanding of attachment theory, neuroscience and trauma informed methods of practice. The course teaches professionals how to apply this knowledge to clinical assessment and intervention planning with youth who have experienced significant trauma in their lives and exhibit problems of conduct. Using an experimental design, participants from a large private mental health organization were asked to evaluate the impact of curriculum on their 1) knowledge of attachment theory, trauma informed practice and neurobiology; 2) attitudes concerning the relevance of trauma-informed practice, the biological perspective and consequence focused models of intervention; and 3) assessment and intervention planning strategies. The curriculum focused its application on youth who have experienced significant levels of trauma and display conduct related behavior problems. Group differences for the workshop intervention group and waitlist control group are discussed. Additionally, a preliminary evaluation of differences between two different intervention groups (participants in the Distance Learning version of the course and the Workshop Seminar version of the course) was conducted.

Thesis advisor: Belle Liang / The study of treatments for complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), especially in cases of chronic childhood abuse, has revealed that traditional trauma treatments often lack success due to the complexity of symptom presentation. CPTSD often manifests as a lack of integration between the self and the body. While certain coping strategies used by survivors during the trauma experiences, such as dissociation, may be adaptive in the short-term, prolonged use posttrauma comes at a cost--resulting in a loss of awareness of one's emotional and physical being in the present moment. Mindfulness-based interventions, such as hatha yoga, show promise as alternative or complementary treatments for CPTSD. Furthermore, current trauma treatments have been criticized for their primary focus on psychopathology. More recent conceptualizations of trauma recovery call for a paradigm shift that recognizes not only the need for symptom-reduction, but also the encouragement of positive development and personal growth (i.e., stronger sense of self, relationships with others, and perspective on life). This qualitative study explored the experiences of women with CPTSD in a 10-week, trauma-informed hatha yoga class, specifically examining perceived changes with regard to symptom reduction and personal growth. Six themes were identified through qualitative content analysis. Theme 1 describes the yoga practice and study design characteristics that influenced participants' experiences. Themes 2 through 6 reflect participants' increased feelings of Gratitude and compassion, Relatedness, Acceptance, Centeredness, and Empowerment (referred to as G.R.A.C.E. themes). Findings are discussed in the context of current literature. Limitations of the study are also presented along with recommendations for future research and clinical work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.