Training

In Winter 2020, New Community will launch training programs for groups that work regularly with people who have experienced trauma.   Training will teach specific social interventions and practices.  

We developed our program in two years of interviews with women who were severely abused in childhood.  We refined it with immigrants, infertile families, homeless men, inmates, and people subjected to violence and racism.  Needs for healthy social environments have been remarkably consistent across these groups.  

This is a from-the-ground-up program based on individual experiences. It is built on nine social precepts that counteract conditions under which trauma arises.  For example, we teach and practice structure, safety, and connection to target problems of chaos, danger, and isolation.  

Our clients  are peer mentors in medical settings, professionals in behavioral health, and faith-based organizations.  We establish networks of providers with common interests, so that we can continue to learn from one another and advocate for people we serve.   If you are interested in hosting a training program, contact us at info@thenewcommunity.org.      

New Community is working with a public health care system to build a certification program for peers who provide lay support for people in medical care.  These may be patients who have been in serious accidents, who have undergone amputation or life-threatening illness, crime victims, and people in abusive environments.  Watch this space for training opportunities.  

Many health and behavioral health professionals already provide trauma-informed care.  This training expands providers' skills in counseling, individual and group therapies, social work and health care to include a wider range of theory and practice so that therapies can develop in healthier social environments that support and nourish interventions.  

Teachers and other school staff are often the first to identify people who are experiencing trauma in the home or community.  Social intervention training allows these key resource people to bring a wider understanding of the specific needs of traumatized individuals to connect with others in safe and healthy ways.  Understanding social needs and deficits in a context of trauma enables our educators to build interventions with an enlarged perspective, and to discover meaningful resources for people they serve.       

Faith-based and community organizations are often places of refuge sought by people who have been traumatized.  We work with lay and professional leaders to identify conditions that enable traumatic events, and how they can be unlearned and replaced by more thoughtful social alternatives.  We are experienced in working with social activists and with Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and Quaker groups, as well as with people on spiritual journeys who do not adhere to a particular ideology.  Training encompasses many points of view, but also draws upon specific organizational values.