scholarly journals Trauma-informed and relational approaches to service provision: building community-based project capacity to respond to interpersonal violence through a national initiative

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla D. Singh ◽  
Naomi C. Z. Andrews ◽  
Mary Motz ◽  
Debra J. Pepler ◽  
Margaret Leslie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Violence Intervention ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Mothers And Children ◽  
Trauma Informed

Abstract Background Community services that engage and service marginalized families can act as an important entry point for mothers and children experiencing interpersonal violence. The purpose of this study was to use an initiative that included training, implementation, and evaluation of an interpersonal violence intervention to understand changes in the capacity of service providers in community-based organizations to use trauma-informed and relational approaches to support mothers and children experiencing violence in relationships. Methods Participants (N = 27) were service providers from 14 community-based organizations across Canada, who had been trained to implement an interpersonal violence intervention with mothers in their communities. Using a phenomenological approach, participants engaged in an open-ended interview in which they were encouraged to reflect on their experiences in the intervention initiative, with prompts relating to the ways in which their work and their organization may have changed as a result of their participation. Results Findings indicated that participants were able to identify changes in four key areas related to trauma-informed practice: awareness (e.g., attitudes toward interpersonal violence), competency (e.g., application of trauma-informed knowledge), collaboration (e.g., working with other organizations to provide services to children and families), and safety (e.g., organizational policies to ensure safe, welcoming spaces). Further, participants identified these areas of change at the level of themselves as facilitators of the interpersonal violence intervention, their organizations, and their communities. Conclusions Results indicate that, through training, implementation, and evaluation of an interpersonal violence intervention, service providers in community-based projects were able to extend trauma-informed and relational principles not only to the intervention itself, but also to their own work, as well as that of their organizations and communities. With some additional support, leveraging the existing capacities within community-based projects may be an effective means to support mothers and children experiencing interpersonal violence and other challenges.

“Out-of-the-Mainstream” Youth as Partners in Collaborative Research: Exploring the Benefits and Challenges

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary W. Harper ◽  
Lisa J. Carver
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Street Youth ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Service Programs ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Improve Health

Forming collaborations between university-based researchers and community-based organizations (CBOs) serves to improve health promotion research and service. Unfortunately, members of the targeted populations are typically not included in such collaborations. This article describes the development and maintenance of a successful university-CBO collaboration that was formed to explore HIV-related risk rates and prevention strategies for suburban street youth and discusses the benefits and challenges of including out-of-the-mainstream youth as full collaborative partners in the research. Specific benefits included population-specific modifications of the research methods and instruments, recruitment of hard-to-reach youth, greater ease in tracking participants, and increased project acceptability and credibility. Among the challenges were issues related to boundaries, confidentiality, commitment, and burnout. Although such collaborations require increased time and commitment, the synergistic knowledge and experience of university researchers, community-based service providers, and out-of-the-mainstream youth can result in the development of unique and informative research and service programs.

scholarly journals Post-Disaster Mental Distress Relief: Health Promotion and Knowledge Exchange in Partnership with a Refugee Diaspora Community

Refuge ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 44-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Simich ◽  
Lisa Andermann ◽  
Joanna Anneke Rummens ◽  
Ted Lo
Keyword(s):  
Community Service ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Post Disaster

After the 2004 Asian tsunami, a group of concerned scientists, physicians, and community service providers united to form a Local Distress Relief Network (LDRN) to provide information, referral, and care to affected members of the large Sri Lankan Tamil community in Toronto. The LDRN organized a workshop that brought together community-based organizations and international and local experts in mental health and disaster response to review existing knowledge on disaster response and to share community knowledge and experience. This article summarizes the development of the network, the workshop proceedings and joint recommendations for communitybased, culturally appropriate mental distress relief.

scholarly journals Homelessness during COVID-19: Challenges, Responses, and Lessons Learned from Homeless Service Providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia M. Rodriguez ◽  
Alexa M. Lahey ◽  
Justin J. MacNeill ◽  
Rebecca G. Martinez ◽  
Nina E. Teo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Based Organizations

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare some of the United States’ most devastating health and social inequities faced by people experiencing homelessness. Homeless populations experience disproportionate rates of underlying health conditions, stigma and marginalization that often disenfranchise them from health and social services, and living conditions that potentiate the risk of COVID-19 transmission and adverse outcomes. Methods: Guided by the socio-ecological model, this community-based participatory research study examined the impacts of the COVID-19 public health crisis on people experiencing homelessness in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and the ways in which homeless service providers prepared for, experienced, and responded to the pandemic. Eighteen (18) semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of 15 community-based organizations, including shelters and other homeless service providers.Results: Qualitative content analysis revealed multilevel challenges and responses to COVID-19 impact mitigation in this community, including the implementation of diverse safety measures, policies and novel service delivery innovations.Conclusions: Community-based organizations, including homeless shelters, are uniquely qualified to inform pandemic response and disaster risk mitigation in order to respond appropriately to the specific needs of people experiencing homelessness. Many of the emergency measures put in place by homeless service providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana created opportunities for innovative solutions to longstanding challenges faced by homeless populations that can inform better service delivery moving forward, long after the COVID-19 pandemic. The lessons learned and shared by homeless service providers on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic have important implications to improve future disaster response for homeless and other vulnerable populations.

Picturing Participation: Catalyzing Conversations About Community Engagement in HIV Community–Based Organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 109019812097714
Author(s):  
Sarah Switzer ◽  
Soo Chan Carusone ◽  
Alex McClelland ◽  
Kamilah Apong ◽  
Neil Herelle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Grief And Loss ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Support Organizations ◽  
Fuzzy Term

Community engagement is considered a cornerstone of health promotion practice. Yet engagement is a fuzzy term signifying a range of practices. Health scholarship has focused primarily on individual effects of engagement. To understand the complexities of engagement, organizations must also consider relational, structural, and/or organizational factors that inform stakeholders’ subjective understandings and experiences. Community engagement processes are not neutral; they can reproduce and/or dismantle power structures, often in contradictory or unexpected ways. This article discusses diverse stakeholders’ subjective experiences and understandings of engagement within the HIV sector in Toronto, Canada. In our study, a team of community members, service providers, and academics partnered with three HIV community–based organizations to do this work. We used photovoice, a participatory and action-oriented photography method, to identify, document, and analyze participants’ understandings at respective sites. Through collaborative analysis, we identified seven themes that may catalyze conversations about engagement within organizations: reflecting on journey; honoring relationships; accessibility and support mechanisms; advocacy, peer leadership, and social justice; diversity and difference; navigating grief and loss; and nonparticipation. Having frank and transparent discussions that are grounded in stakeholders’ subjective experiences, and the sociopolitical and structural conditions of involvement, can help organizations take a more intersectional and nuanced approach to community engagement. Together, our findings can be used as a framework to support organizations in thinking more deeply and complexly about how to meaningfully, ethically, and sustainably engage communities (both individually and collectively) in HIV programming, and organizational policy change. The article concludes with questions for practice.

Building Disaster Resilient Organizations in the Non-Government (NGO) Sector

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 503-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Eisner ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Peer Networks ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Government Sector ◽  
Definition Of

In 2006 Fritz Institute initiated the development and implemention of a process to create “disaster resilience” in faith and community based organizations that provide services to vulnerable populations in California. The process included undertaking background research on the attributes of disaster resilient organizations; development of intervention strategies to promote organizational resilience, developing a definition of “soft” and “hard” resilience applicable to the non-government sector; and the development and implementation of A Disaster Resilience Standard for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers. This process necessitated the creation of a constituency for a standard, convening of peer networks to support organizational change, and the formulation of a strategy to sustain application of the standard.

scholarly journals Developing Trauma-Informed Care Champions: A Six-Month Learning Collaborative Training Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha P. Koury ◽  
Susan A. Green
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Training Model ◽  
Learning Collaborative ◽  
Professional Literature ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Culture Shift ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Collaborative Training

This paper describes a six-month learning collaborative for service providers seeking to implement trauma-informed care (TIC) into their agencies. Although the professional literature on trauma-informed care has grown substantially over the past 10 years, little research has focused on how to effectively train agencies in creating a trauma-informed culture shift. Participants were trained as “TIC champions” to help facilitate the creation of trauma-informed approaches in their agencies. Through a parallel process, they learned the skills for planning and implementing a trauma-informed approach in their agency. At the completion of the training, trainers observed champions becoming more confident in their ability to assist their agencies in creating a trauma-informed culture shift. Though quantitative studies evaluating the learning collaborative are needed, initial findings suggest the collaborative approach is an effective means of guiding champions through the process of becoming trauma-informed. 

scholarly journals Homelessness during COVID-19: challenges, responses, and lessons learned from homeless service providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia M. Rodriguez ◽  
Alexa M. Lahey ◽  
Justin J. MacNeill ◽  
Rebecca G. Martinez ◽  
Nina E. Teo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Based Organizations

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare some of the United States’ most devastating health and social inequities faced by people experiencing homelessness. Homeless populations experience disproportionate rates of underlying health conditions, stigma and marginalization that often disenfranchise them from health and social services, and living conditions that potentiate the risk of COVID-19 transmission and adverse outcomes. Methods Guided by the socio-ecological model, this community-based participatory research study examined the impacts of the COVID-19 public health crisis on people experiencing homelessness in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and the ways in which homeless service providers prepared for, experienced, and responded to the pandemic. Eighteen (18) semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of 15 community-based organizations, including shelters and other homeless service providers. Results Qualitative content analysis revealed myriad challenges at the individual and interpersonal levels faced by people experiencing homelessness as a result of the pandemic, and multilevel responses for COVID-19 impact mitigation in this community. Many of the emergency measures put in place by homeless service providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana created opportunities for innovative solutions to longstanding challenges faced by homeless populations that are informing better service delivery moving forward, even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions Community-based organizations, including homeless shelters, are uniquely qualified to inform pandemic response and disaster risk mitigation in order to respond appropriately to the specific needs of people experiencing homelessness. The lessons learned and shared by homeless service providers on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic have important implications to improve future disaster response for homeless and other vulnerable populations.

scholarly journals Involuntary Outpatient Commitment and the Elusive Pursuit of Violence Prevention

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marvin S. Swartz ◽  
Sayanti Bhattacharya ◽  
Allison G. Robertson ◽  
Jeffrey W. Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Violence Prevention ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Community Treatment ◽  
Outpatient Commitment ◽  
Weapon Use ◽  
The Impact

Objective: Involuntary outpatient commitment (OPC)—also referred to as ‘assisted outpatient treatment’ or ‘community treatment orders’—are civil court orders whereby persons with serious mental illness and repeated hospitalisations are ordered to adhere to community-based treatment. Increasingly, in the United States, OPC is promoted to policy makers as a means to prevent violence committed by persons with mental illness. This article reviews the background and context for promotion of OPC for violence prevention and the empirical evidence for the use of OPC for this goal. Method: Relevant publications were identified for review in PubMed, Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, personal communications, and relevant Internet searches of advocacy and policy-related publications. Results: Most research on OPC has focussed on outcomes such as community functioning and hospital recidivism and not on interpersonal violence. As a result, research on violence towards others has been limited but suggests that low-level acts of interpersonal violence such as minor, noninjurious altercations without weapon use and arrests can be reduced by OPC, but there is no evidence that OPC can reduce major acts of violence resulting in injury or weapon use. The impact of OPC on major violence, including mass shootings, is difficult to assess because of their low base rates. Conclusions: Effective implementation of OPC, when combined with intensive community services and applied for an adequate duration to take effect, can improve treatment adherence and related outcomes, but its promise as an effective means to reduce serious acts of violence is unknown.

scholarly journals Evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of the Healthy Together program for immigrant and refugee families in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Huisken ◽  
Joan L. Bottorff ◽  
Catherine Nesmith
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Healthy Eating ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Healthy Lifestyles ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee

Purpose Healthy Together (HT) is an innovative family education program focused on bringing families together to promote physical activity and healthy eating. The HT program was implemented in 10 community-based organizations across Canada offering services to immigrant and refugee families. The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility and acceptability of HT when offered to these families. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional, non-comparative design was used. Caregiver participants were invited to complete a survey at the end of 15, 30 or 24 HT sessions. Trained program facilitators and directors of community-based organizations also provided feedback on the program. Findings Among the 203 caregiver participants, 135 (64%) were born outside of Canada. These caregivers were more likely to attend 50% or more of the HT sessions than Canadian-born caregivers. Survey responses show that the HT program was acceptable to immigrant and refugee caregivers and held important benefits for families including positive changes in healthy eating and physical activity, strengthening social connections and learning about community services and resources. Areas for enhancing the HT program for immigrant and refugee families were identified by participant caregivers and community organizations delivering the program. Practical implications The HT program demonstrates the value of family-centered program models in supporting immigrant and refugee families in establishing healthy lifestyles and building social connections in ways that hold promise for long-term impact. Originality/value The HT program model demonstrates strong potential to fill gaps in community programming for immigrant and refugee families. Although focused on promoting healthy lifestyles, the program extends additional benefits that can positively influence resettlement trajectories. The findings contribute to the growing field of implementation studies that are focused on expanding the reach and impact of community health interventions in a real-world setting while reaching multiple target populations.

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