Section 2 Introduction

2.1 CTRC - Overview

The Center for Trauma Resilient Communities helps organizations such as social service agencies, health care providers, foster care, community-based resources, schools, etc., to address the collective impact of adversity and trauma. The Trauma Resilient Communities (TRC) Model and approach uses the current research-supported trauma-resilient practices and organizational development and implementation science to help move individuals and organizations from information to action. This process is designed to create a trauma-responsive and trauma resilient culture for clients, staff, leaders, and the community as a whole.

The primary goal of the TRC Model is to support organizations in creating congruent trauma-informed knowledge, language, practices, values, and culture. Having shared knowledge as the foundational building block provides an organization with the tools to create and sustain organizational change. The TRC Model weaves resilience building, equity & justice, Adverse Childhood Experiences, organizational chronic stress, trauma science, and compassion fatigue throughout eight modules. The training will take a didactic approach to drive a more in-depth learning process and go beyond surface-level change through critical thinking. The training is experiential and led by a team of diverse experts who bring differing levels of knowledge and experience to better facilitate a whole community culture shift. Throughout the training, participants are exposed to trauma-informed practices modeled by facilitators.

CTRC assists with embedding and embodying the science of trauma resilience through training, coaching, and consultation to mitigate past and ongoing traumatic exposures. During and after training, participants are given the opportunity to use what they’ve learned and nurture their trauma-informed skills and practices. CTRC is invested in working collaboratively with organizations to cultivate internal expertise. Everyone has an essential role in developing, conceptualizing, and implementing trauma-informed and resilient organizational culture. CTRC is committed to supporting organizations on their journey through this challenging and exciting process.

2.2 CTRC - Mission

The mission of CTRC is to help organizations and communities embed and embody the science of trauma resilience. CTRC meets its mission by:

Using the current science of trauma resilience and organizational development to move people from information to action;
Working with leaders to build a trauma-responsive and trauma resilient culture which helps to decrease burnout and turnover, increase compassion and accountability, improve overall organizational health and effectiveness;
Providing workforce development by helping the “helpers” build resilience to chronic stress and exposure to secondary trauma while supporting leaders to implement structures for safety, self-care, and wellness;
Building capacity by developing internal trainers who help change the culture through our Train the Trainer curriculum, coaching, and certification.

2.3 The TRC Model

The CTRC will engage the Forsyth County community in a process of information gathering and problem solving specific to their concerns. This investigative approach offers communities an easy frame of reference for understanding the TRC Model. As communities work together to address trauma and develop resilience, the following questions will be considered:

Why is there trauma and why is it important to address?
Who is most adversely affected and who should be involved in planning and decision making?
What happened to cause trauma and what must be done to heal from exposure to trauma?
Where in the community should access to help and healing take place?
When do we identify trauma, link to trauma-informed services, and promote resilience?
How does a community create trauma-informed spaces and educate providers on what it means to be trauma-informed and responsive to the needs of high-risk youth and their families?

The CTRC Resilience Framework happens within the context of community. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which considers the interpersonal and environmental factors that affect individual and community development, is the basis for understanding the Resilience Framework. Community is defined at the micro, mezzo, and macro level. This approach is also informed by John Ogbu’s cultural-ecological approach, which looks at the study of institutionalized patterns of behaviors interdependent with features of the environment.

At the micro level, the impact is on individuals, peers, families, and schools.
At the mezzo level, the focus is on systems and institutions impacting communities, such as education, housing, transportation, employment/labor, law enforcement, health and human services providers, faith-based institutions, and community-based organizations. This is where the CTRC will focus much of the initial, initiative-development work.
Macro level factors within the CTRC Resilience Framework include public (government) and private (corporations) sector policies; political climate; culture; and socio-economic factors such as violence, race, gender, and income.

At each level, the TRC Model can impact the aftermath of trauma, adversity, and violence. The illustration below demonstrates the community context in which the grant with Kate B. Reynolds Trust will be situated (see Figure 1).

Building a Trauma Resilient Forsyth County: Community-Based Resilience Framework

This framework was used to inform the structure of the research teams working on this report. A research team from Wake Forest Baptist Health and CareNet focused on data collection at the micro level through surveys and interviews with community members, while a research team from Forsyth Futures focused on the mezzo level through surveys and interviews with staff at child-serving organizations. This report focuses on the mezzo level analysis.

2.4 Strategy

Strategy: Support community-based research, planning and education efforts to identify gaps and opportunities to build trauma-informed practices, policies, and systems.

Center for Trauma Resilient Communities (CTRC) plan for Building Trauma-Resilient Systems:

CTRC’s work will utilize it’s Trauma Resilient Community (TRC) Model to lead the Forsyth County community to initiative development.
The TRC Model is based on diverse theoretical research that is informed by trauma resilience science, community development, equity, leadership and leadership development, organizational development and implementation science, among others and is guided by the SAMHSA Elements of Trauma-Informed Systems.
CTRC’s work will focus on changing the individuals within the organization in order to change the culture of the organization.
This will create change at the mezzo-level (If we look at the community as individuals at the micro-level and government/elected officials are at the macro-level.).

2.5 CTRC - History

For more than 100 years, Crossnore Communities For Children has provided a sanctuary of hope and healing for children in crisis. Crossnore has always been known as a place where lives are transformed, and hope is restored.

Over a decade ago, Crossnore set out to become a completely trauma-informed and trauma-responsive organization. Today Crossnore is an exemplar in the human services arena for implementing a trauma-informed organizational model and a continuum of trauma-informed direct services. Because of the internal capacity and expertise that has been created, organizations from across the state of North Carolina and the country interested in making the transition to trauma-informed and trauma-responsive communities requested advice resulting in a new strategic priority – helping other communities and organizations build their capacity and knowledge in trauma-informed and trauma-resilient practice. And with that, the Center for Trauma Resilient Communities (“CTRC”) was created in January 2018.

Since its founding in 2018, The Center for Trauma Resilient Communities has worked with social service agencies, health care providers, domestic violence shelters, juvenile justice centers, foster care, community-based resources, schools, etc., in addition to community-wide initiatives seeking to promote sustainable change.

The TRC Initiative seeks to promote resilience and equity for those in Forsyth County’s most affected by trauma and violence by strengthening the good work already occurring in our city and working collaboratively across systems and agencies to identify new opportunities for support. Discussions will include the development of a common vision for the community and ways to ensure that community leaders/members are involved in every aspect of the development of the community strategic plan.

2.6 About this Report

To reduce the occurrences and impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress among young children, the K.B. Reynolds Charitable Trust put out a call for proposals to support mapping, planning, and education related to building trauma-informed early childhood systems in Forsyth County.

CTRC responded to this call for proposals with a plan to lead research teams from Wake Forest Baptist Health and Forsyth Futures to collect information to inform CTRC’s development of a strategic plan. This report includes the information that Forsyth Futures gathered at the mezzo (organizational) level. It answers questions about the broader community context; child-serving staff’s own experiences of ACEs, COVID-19, and secondary traumatic stress; child-serving organizations’ current familiarity and alignment with the TRC model; and the ability of organizations’ staff to bring about systems change through transformational leadership.