The threat of homelessness is traumatic. The experience of homelessness is traumatic. Imagine being a mother with children losing her home, desperately trying to find a safe place to be with your children. There is a good chance that she has experienced trauma and violence in the past, as a child and as an adult. How does her encounter with emergency homeless services and supports consider the impact of trauma on this woman's life?

This issue discusses trauma-informed care, particularly from the angle of trauma-sensitive programming. While it is absolutely critical to understand the impact of traumatic events past and present on an individual's ability to rebuild, it is equally important to think about how an organization structures and operates its programs to take trauma sensitivity into consideration. How are staff expectations set and how does professional development occur? What are the program rules, why do they exist, and how are they enforced? How do programs build trust with families when it might be perfectly natural for a family not to trust the program right away?  

We are also hosting a webinar on this topic on Wednesday, May 9th 3:00 - 4:00 pm EDT. We hope you can join us to learn more about how you can incorporate a trauma-informed care approach into your organization.

Being trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive changes the way programs interact with all their clients. It's not just a specific way of working with only those clients with histories of trauma. You will find information in this issue that can help you build the trauma competence of your organization.

Trauma is the Norm 

A history of violence and trauma is the norm for women and their children experiencing homelessness. For many mothers experiencing homelessness, trauma is something they experienced both as a child and as an adult. According to different studies, 90 percent have been abused by their intimate partners and 42 percent were sexually molested as children. Fifty to sixty percent of mothers experiencing homelessness became homeless because they were fleeing a violent relationship. Children experiencing homelessness are exposed to violence at very high rates. Many studies have shown that the event of homelessness itself has a traumatic effect on children as well and is tied to poor health, school, and mental health outcomes.

Unaddressed Trauma has Long-Term, Even Multi-Generational Effects

Trauma fundamentally alters a woman's ability to trust and feel safe. It has repercussions throughout her relationships and can lead to stress, depression, a variety of coping mechanisms including substance abuse and self-harm, and a failure to form proper bonds with her children. This in turn can have long-term health, mental health, and educational attainment effects on her children.

A ongoing cohort study following over 17,000 individuals overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente of San Diego on the health effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACE Study) has found that trauma experienced during childhood is correlated with a broad spectrum of mental health disorders, risk-taking behaviors, adult intimate partner violence, negative health and disease outcomes, and even early death. The conclusions of the many research papers published on data from the ACE Study make it clear that traumatic events in childhood have far-reaching effects into the lives of those who experience them but also into the lives of their children, future spouses, and likely even their grandchildren and their future spouses. When a young mother finds herself homeless because she is fleeing domestic violence, it is a sad truth that her daughter is at much greater risk of finding herself in the same situation 15 years from now. When it comes to trauma, history has a tendency to repeat itself. 

N Street Village provides comprehensive supportive services and housing for low-income women and women experiencing homelessness in Washington, DC. Many of the women served by N Street Village face multiple challenges for recovery, including a history of trauma, poverty, mental illness, addiction, and chronic health problems. To help each woman regain a stable healthy life, N Street Village utilizes trauma-informed care at every level of service to help empower women to achieve self-sufficiency. Throughout their programs and services, N Street Village emphasizes the importance of community in the healing and recovery process.

Recently, N Street Village expanded its permanent supportive housing services through the creation of a new program called Erna's House.  

-  Read more about how Erna's House employs trauma-informed care to improve outcomes

While there are many reasons why it can be difficult for female Veterans to adjust back to civilian life, the problems resulting from military sexual trauma is one of particular note for service providers. Roughly 20% of female Veterans experience military sexual trauma, and as the number of female service members returning to civilian life is rising, it is important to recognize and address the effects of this and other traumatic events they've experienced. The Department of Labor released the Trauma-Informed Care Guide for Serving Women Veterans Experiencing Homelessness targeted to service providers and case managers on best practices in using a trauma-informed care approach. USICH also spoke to an expert in serving female Veterans familiar with successful interventions for this group of women experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

-  Read more 

Wednesday May 9, 3:00 - 4:00pm EDT 

Mother's Day is a time for us to celebrate mothers and their role raising children. Join USICH for a discussion of ways homeless services programs can use a trauma-informed care model to serve mothers and their children better and help break through the cycle of trauma and homelessness.    

Panelists will include:  

• Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of USICH   
• Joan Gillece, Director for SAMHSA's National Center of Trauma-Informed Care  
• Julia Tripp, Research Assistant for Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Program Associate for Advocates for Human Potential with Programs for the Assistance in the Transition out of Homelessness

-  Register now 

Maltreatment, neglect, and trauma have profound effects on the well-being and functioning of children and youth. The many children and youth involved in the child welfare system have experienced these adverse events and often therefore experience the negative effects of these experiences. Based on a wealth of research regarding holistic child well-being, the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services recently released an information memorandum for state, tribal, and territorial agencies administering child welfare services on improving systems to address these issues. The complex set of challenges faced by children involved in child welfare must be met with a system that addresses both the issue of permanency in a home and the effects of maltreatment in the behavioral, emotional, and social functioning of a child.

This information memorandum includes research on the diverse effects of trauma, examples of emerging interventions to address trauma, ways to transition a state's current child welfare system to address well-being, and federal policies and resources available to improve services and outcomes for children.