Trauma Informed Care from the Inside Out
90 minutes

Presenter: Susie Hess

Description:

Trauma Informed LA (TILA) is an all-volunteer grassroots organization founded in 2014. Our mission is to foster resilient communities that promote healing and well-being through collaboration, education, and community engagement. Trauma Informed LA steering committee members co-created a trauma-informed organization from the inside out throughout the past 7 years. The intention was to ensure we were practicing through a trauma-informed lens internally before we began our work externally. After 7 years of labor, we would like to share The TILA Model. Participants will examine a trauma-informed shared leadership organizational model to be used within coalitions, collaborations, and non-profit organizations. 

Objectives: 

1. Attendees will examine Participatory Decision Making as a shared leadership model.
2. Attendees will identify strategies to incorporate shared leadership in their meetings.
3. Attendees will generate community care practices within their coalitions and collaborations.

Recommended Audience: Coalition members, community activists, service providers, executive directors, educators.

Introduction To Trauma Informed Care
90 minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

Intro to Trauma-Informed Care will review the basics of incorporating the theory of Trauma-Informed care into the social services world. This training will explain the idea behind trauma-informed care, how trauma manifests in individuals and organizations and how to mitigate trauma through trauma-informed and culturally humble practices.

Objectives: 

1. Understand what trauma is and how it affects both individuals and a community.
2. Understand the intersectional impacts of trauma. 
3. Learn the basics of trauma-informed care and healing-centered service provision.

Recommended Audience: Community serving agencies, schools, child welfare workers, teachers, advocates, law enforcement, youth-serving agencies.

Storytellers Bill of Rights
90 minutes

Presenter: Susie Hess

Description: 

Trauma Informed LA launched the Our Stories Matter podcast in January 2020 to celebrate the complex lived experiences of activists and healers by sharing their inspiring stories. Our Stories Matter centers on healing through activism, art, poetry, film, music, breath, movement, and more. Each guest brings a unique story, but one with the global theme of community healing and liberation through storytelling. This presentation will explore trauma-informed healing-centered storytelling and the importance of designing healing-centered spaces for storytellers. As journalist Lauren Gilger profoundly states,“the power of the story will save us all.”

Objectives:

1. Attendees will recognize how storytelling can change the narrative to promote social, gender, racial and political justice.
2. Attendees will discuss strategies to support storytellers through a trauma-informed healing centered lens.
3. Attendees will know their rights when invited to be a storyteller. 

Recommended Audience: Coalition members, community members, educators, executive directors, teachers.

Impact of Trauma on Families, a Cultural, Relational, and Multi-generational Perspective
90 minutes

Presenter: Christina Marquez

Description:

This training will focus on the impact of trauma on family systems. The impact of traumatic experiences within a family unit can look different for each individual family member. In this training, we will take consider the impact of trauma on families through adopting a cultural, relational, and multigenerational perspective. 

Objectives: 

1. To understand the impact of trauma on the parent-child relationship.
2. To identify pathways to resilience for parents and caregivers looking through a trauma-informed lens.
3. To identify resources for parents and families.

Recommended Audience: Service providers, community health workers, families.

Uplifting Resilient Communities Through Promoting Opportunities for Connection
60 – 90 minutes

Presenter: Christina Marquez

Description: 

This training will focus on uplifting resilient communities through addressing the impact of community violence, and identifying communities at risk of experiencing community violence. The training will also highlight the importance of connection in being able to heal from community violence exposure. 

Objectives:

1. To identify the impact of trauma on communities.
2. To identify connection as a protective factor that contributes to community resiliency. 

Recommended Audience: Service providers, community health workers.

A Trauma Informed Healing Centered Approach when Supporting Individuals who have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence
60 – 90 minutes

Presenter: Susan Hess

Description: 

Understand the basics of a trauma-informed healing centered approach with participants who have experienced intimate partner violence. This training will provide insight into synergistic trauma and healing centered practices through a micro, macro and mezzo lens.

Objectives:

1. Understand synergistic trauma within the field of intimate partner violence. 
2. Incorporate trauma informed and healing centered practices on a micro, macro and mezzo level.
3. Apply Trauma-Informed healing centered practices with participants.

Recommended Audience: Community serving agencies, domestic violence agencies, advocates, law enforcement, student interns.  

Cultural Humility
60 – 90 minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

This training will provide participants with an overview of cultural humility and how to apply culturally humble practices to micro and macro-level environments. 

Objectives:

1. Understand how culture impacts service delivery and trauma.
2. Understand what cultural humility is and understand the importance of utilizing culturally humble practices.
3. Learn culturally humble practices to incorporate in micro-level and macro-level work. 

Recommended Audience: Community serving agencies, schools, child welfare workers, teachers, advocates, law enforcement, youth-serving agencies.

Community Engagement through a Trauma Informed Healing Centered Lens
60-90 minutes

Presenter: Susie Hess

Description:

This training will focus on trauma informed healing centered engagement with the community. The intersections of synergistic trauma, neurobiology and healing will be explored.

Objectives:

1. Intro to community engagement through a trauma informed healing centered lens.
2. Leading trauma informed healing centered dialogues with the community.
3. Establishing trauma informed healing centered guidelines with the community.

Recommended Audience: Coalition members, community members, community interventionists.

Providing Supervision through a Trauma Informed Antiracist Lens
60 – 90 minutes

Presenter: Susan Hess

Description: 

Providing supervision through a Trauma Informed Antiracist to mitigate trauma in ones place of employment. Attendees will identify actionable steps to cultivate brave spaces through a trauma informed antiracist lens by acknowledging the effects of trauma, engaging in discussions about racism during supervision and identifying healing practices. 

Objectives:

1. Apply Trauma Informed Principles within supervision
2. Apply self reflection practices
3. Leading Antiracist Discussions in Supervision
4. Incorporate healing practices within supervision

Recommended Audience: Community serving agencies, schools, child welfare workers, teachers, advocates, law enforcement, youth-serving agencies.

Trauma-Informed Lawyering
90 Minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

This training will provide an overview of how to incorporate trauma-informed practices into the legal environment. Attendees will learn what trauma is and its impact, and the importance of creating trauma-informed spaces and practices. 

Objectives:

1. Attendees will understand trauma and the physical and psychological impacts of trauma on a person and community.
2. Learn how to provide trauma-informed lawyering practices.
3. Understand the basics of trauma-informed care within the legal environment.

Recommended Audience: Attorneys, Law Students, Legal Professionals.

Secondary Trauma and Vicarious Trauma for Attorney
90 Minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

This training will teach about the different forms of secondary and vicarious trauma attorneys and those in the legal profession may be impacted by. Attendees will also learn about how to mitigate secondary trauma and implement wellness and self-care practices.

Objectives:

1. Attendees will understand what Secondary Trauma is and how it happens.
2. Attendees will learn about the impact of trauma on health and wellness.
3. Learn strategies for wellness and self-care and how to implement them in the legal profession.

Recommended Audience: Attorneys, Law Students, Legal Professionals.

Trauma Interviewing for Attorneys
90 minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

This training will provide attorneys with the skills and tools necessary to conduct trauma-informed interviews with their clients. This training includes an overview of the impacts of trauma and trauma-informed practice. This training will also provide a brief overview of forensic interviewing and how to implement it.

Objectives:

1. Understand what trauma is and how it impacts overall health and well-being.
2. Understand how to implement trauma-informed care into interactions with clients and systems.
3. Learn forensic interviewing practices and skills.

Recommended Audience: Attorneys, Law Students, Legal Professionals.

Human Rights Interviewing Techniques through a Trauma Informed Lens
90 minutes

Presenter: Susan Hess

Description:

This training will provide attorneys, legal advocates, paralegals, legal assistants and administrators strategies to reduce re-traumatization and increase communications between clients and improve advocacy within the legal field. 

Objectives: 

1. Understand the impact of synergistic trauma on individuals, families and communities.
2. Learn best practices when interviewing clients/community members who have experienced trauma.
3. Incorporate the principles of a trauma informed approach.

Recommended Audience: Attorneys, Law Students, Legal Professionals.

Facilitated Discussion: How to Have Brave Conversations
60 Minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

A 60 minute facilitated discussion on How to Have BraveConversations. This discussion will allow participants to practice having brave conversations and identify what is needed to have honest and courageous youth-serving conversations. 

Objectives:

1. Understand what is a brave conversation.
2. Differentiate from safe spaces vs. brave spaces.
3. Practice the art of brave conversations.

Recommended Audience: Community serving agencies, schools, child welfare workers, teachers, advocates, law enforcement, youth-serving agencies.

Facilitated Discussion: A chat on Healing for Veterans and Community Providers Impacted by Trauma and Moral Injury
60 minutes

Presenter: Dr. Ramona Merchan

Description: 

A 60-minute facilitated discussion on healing for those impacted by trauma and moral injury. This discussion will allow participants to discuss the personal and collective impact of trauma and how to promote healing practices within our communities and collective environments. 

Objectives:

1. Discuss the impact of trauma on a person, family and community. 
2. Discuss intersectional collective healing practices for individuals seeking safety and healing from trauma. 
3. Experience Community through open and brave dialogue with peers.

Recommended Audience: Community serving agencies, schools, child welfare workers, teachers, advocates, law enforcement, youth-serving agencies.

Raising Resilient Children: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Caregiving
60 minutes

Presenter: Christina Marquez

Description:

This training will focus on identifying a trauma-informed, multigenerational approach to caregiving. We will discuss the impact of trans-generational trauma on family systems and identify opportunities to overcome family trauma through strengthening attachment relationships. 

Objectives:

1. To learn about how trauma impacts caregivers
2. To learn about the association between attachment and trauma
3. To identify opportunities for growth and healing after experiencing trauma

Recommended Audience: Service providers working with youth, caregivers.

Trauma-Informed Youth: Uplifting Resilient Communities through Youth Engagement
60-90 minutes

Presenter: Christina Marquez

Description:

This training will be designed to enhance youth engagement in the community. Youth will receive training on concepts that promote physical (CPR/First Aid) and emotional safety(psychological first aid). This trauma will address the importance of promoting safety in community spaces to advocate for bullying prevention, suicide prevention, as well as any other traumas that youth face. Community youth engagement will also focus on promoting justice and equity and celebrating diversity and inclusion. 

Objectives:

1. To promote resilience among youth in the community by providing them with tools to promote and maintain mental and physical safety.
2. To identify the importance of equity, justice, diversity, and inclusion when considering community-engaged healing.

Recommended Audience: Youth, youth service workers, community health workers.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
60-120 Minutes

Presenter: Dr. Chisato Hotta

Description:

This training is for individuals who work with children (clinicians, nurses, doctors, etc.) in order for them to increase awareness and empathy towards commercially sexually exploited children. 

Objectives:

1. Increase knowledge about WHAT commercial sexual exploitation of children.
2. Increase knowledge about WHY commercial sexual exploitation of children happens.
3. Increase knowledge about HOW commercial sexual exploitation of children happens.
4. Increase knowledge about gender theory and how we can challenge our views to decrease the assumptions, negative views, etc. towards commercially sexually exploited children.

Recommended Audience: social workers, social work/therapy/counseling students, clinicians, MFTs, and more.

Susie Hess, MSW, LCSW-IL (she/her), is a Clinical Associate Professor at USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Hess is an advocate, consultant, and relational organizer in the areas of trauma-informed approaches and the intersections of intimate partner violence.Hess collaborates with social work students who were formerly incarcerated to provide support in navigating through school, licensing issues, and pushing back on systemic barriers that students who were formerly incarcerated face through a trauma-informed approach. 

Hess is the Co-Founder of Trauma Informed LA, whose mission is to foster resilient communities that promote healing and well-being through collaboration, education, and community engagement. In recognition of her dedication,Hess was presented with the distinguished Dr. Marjorie Braude Award by the City of Los Angeles Domestic Violence City Task Force inOctober 2013 for innovative collaboration in serving victims of domestic violence.

Chisato Hotta, DSW, LMFT, LPCC. Dr. Chisato is a licensed marriage family therapist, licensed professional clinical counselor, and a doctor in social work. Her passion for advocating on behalf of commercially sexually exploited children comes from her experience in helping to create a sexually exploited minors program with a rape crisis center and police department in the bay area while obtaining her bachelor’s atUC Berkeley. She continued her trauma work with children, families, and adults while obtaining her master’s in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from Pepperdine University, and after getting both of her licenses, went back for her doctorate at the University of Southern California. Her capstone project was on this wicked problem – and this training is one of the parts that come from her capstone project. 

CHRISTINA MARQUEZ, M.A. (she/her), is committed to promoting resilience amongst historically marginalized communities through supporting the development and implementation of trauma-informed community programs and systems. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis with a double major in Psychology and Chicana/oStudies in 2010. Christina proceeded to pursue aMaster of Arts degree in DevelopmentalPsychology from San Francisco State University which she obtained in 2017.

Christina has over 15 years of experience providing direct services as a community educator. She has worked with children in primarily educational settings, serving children of all ages across the developmental lifespan, from as young as 18 months up to 24 years old.Recognizing the impact of trauma on developmental outcomes, Christina expanded her reach beyond the children she was working with and began to teach psycho-educational programs to children and their parents–addressing the interpersonal challenges that trauma experiences present for relation dynamics within family systems. Today,Christina works as an administrator for the Los Angeles County Office of Education Head Start and Early Learning division.

Ramona Merchan, DSW, LCSW (she/her/ella) is a native Angelino with over 20 years of experience in public social services and child welfare in Los Angeles County. Ramona is an experienced trainer, coach, advocate, and leader. She is passionate about assisting vulnerable and marginalized communities.

Ramona served as one of the program managers for the California Partners for Permanency (CAPP) grant, which sought to address the disproportionality and disparity of African American and Native American children and youth in the child welfare system in California.

Ramona continues to champion work in this area and achieves equity for these vulnerable populations. She has recently worked on establishing faith-based partnerships to better address the needs of children and families inLos Angeles County.

Ramona earned her MSW and DSW from USC.She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of California. Ramona has lectured and trained on various topics in the areas of child welfare, racial equity, leadership, and trauma.