CSW has been providing training and organizational coaching on trauma and resilience (T&R) for the Detroit at Work public workforce development system for two years. A critical component of this initiative has been the Trauma and Resilience Ambassadors. Each of the nine adult career centers in the Detroit at Work system has a group of 3-5 T&R Ambassadors who have committed to helping their organizations become more trauma-informed and resilience-building workplaces—for both workforce development participants and staff. Some ambassadors are frontline staff, such as career coaches, financial capability coaches, and business services representatives. Others are career center directors or team managers. It is important to include multiple perspectives—on the ground and from leadership—to ensure that individuals with decision-making power as well as those who enact those decisions are involved.
In year one, CSW worked with the T&R Ambassadors at each individual center to conduct an organizational assessment for each center. Results were then utilized to develop customized action plans with specific goals and actions for each center to become more trauma-informed and resilience building. In addition to participating in CSW trainings and organizational coaching meetings, it is the T&R Ambassadors role to be a catalyst for keeping T&R action plan goals moving forward in their career centers. CSW convenes the ambassadors quarterly in a virtual meeting for peer sharing and brainstorming on successes as well as challenges T&R Ambassadors encounter while implementing their centers’ action plans. The T&R Ambassadors help staff feel safe, seen, and empowered, which are some of the key principles from SAMHSA’s 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach. Here are a few of the strategies the T&R ambassadors have used to accomplish these goals:
Office Relaxation Spaces
Career centers can be crowded, busy spaces, with few places to enjoy a bit of private, quiet time. Some of the T&R Ambassadors heard from their colleagues that quiet spaces would be immensely helpful in the centers. One Center was able to create an office relaxation space they named “the Oasis Space.” The Oasis Space features a tabletop waterfall, greenery, and mist to create a soothing atmosphere. Furthermore, they included fidget toys and coloring books for employees to use to help alleviate stress and anxiety. This is a space where employees can take a break, meditate, pray, stretch, or calm themselves after a stressful meeting or hectic morning.
Wellness Activities & Practices
T&R Ambassadors curated a variety of activities and new practices to promote wellness and team bonding, including a wellness-centered gift exchange, a self-care workshop, anonymous surveys for fun activities to do once a week, and a monthly potluck. Some centers have also recognized team members with personalized gifts such as water bottles and bags with notes of gratitude. Additionally, centers provide staff opportunities to attend external conferences and presentations on wellness, trauma, and resilience and bring their learnings back.
One Center has piloted a concept they call “Moments of Zen”. A Moment of Zen could be integrating mindfulness exercises at the beginning or end of meetings to allow space for everyone to stop what they are doing and breathe. This helps staff calm their brains and transition between different work tasks. This Center has also carved out time where they give each other moments of encouragement and/or praise. Outside of meetings, this Center’s staff have started emailing each other inspirational quotes or songs as gentle reminders to practice self-care.
Accountability
The T&R Ambassadors identified accountability as a critical component in sustaining T&R efforts long-term. Ambassadors realized that individual staff, as well as the Center as an organization need to be held accountable. Many Centers have implemented an end-of-month self-care check-in before staff meetings or conducted a survey for staff on the center’s progress toward building staff resiliency. One Center has just launched a new 30-day Accountability Partner Pairing project. An Accountability Partner’s role is to check in with their partner to see if they are on track with their self-care and resilience-building commitments. The intent is that each Accountability Partner is someone staff will listen to and from whom they can take critical feedback in a way that supports their growth.
Looking to the Future
The power of these implemented actions is that they strengthen the human connections between staff and deepen relationships. In turn, this has strengthened teams and built resilience at the personal and organizational levels. CSW commits to working with partners to achieve the following goals:
- An increase of directors and managers joining Detroit at Work’s T&R Ambassador group to bring more decision-making power.
- T&R Ambassadors compensated for their work by either extra pay or by incorporating T&R tasks into their job descriptions.
- T&R Ambassador groups developed around the country to grow and sustain more trauma-informed and resilience-building organizations across workforce development and other human service professions.
Due to the near-universal and massive toll on mental health caused by the pandemic, resurging spotlight on racial injustice, financial distress, and political tensions in the last few years, the mental health stigma in the United States has lessened somewhat. There is a window opportunity right now to make great strides toward necessary culture change. Adopting a trauma-informed and resilience-building approach benefits everyone.
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