Here & Now

New Ways to Help Those with History of Trauma

Frederica Freyberg:
Also at the Capitol, a bipartisan proposal to fund grants to community-based programs like those at YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs in Wisconsin for trauma informed care in settings outside of school. In tonight’s closer look, we will hear from the CEO of the Fox Valley Boys and Girls Club about the need. But first, to set the stage, we dip into an excerpt from a WPT documentary about trauma informed care titled that premiered this week. It’s titled “Not Enough Apologies.”

Girl:
Stop. What is wrong with you? Come on. Good girl.

Elizabeth Hudson:
Trauma informed care is about a culture change. It’s about shifting the way we understand behavior and how we respond to it.

Reyna Saldana:
I think if people knew about trauma informed care, I don’t think I would have gone through as much.

Frederica Freyberg:
An understanding of trauma’s impact on physical and mental health first emerged more than 20 years ago. In response, trauma informed care has emerged in the decade since.

Chuck Price:
How do we start, you know, asking every single time we’re working with families that question, the trauma formed question of switching the lens from, you know, what’s wrong with you to what happened to you?

Frederica Freyberg:
Trauma informed care expert, Elizabeth Hudson says this so-called switching the lens results in a perspective shift, allowing teachers or care givers to recognize why a child might be acting out or shutting down.

Elizabeth Hudson:
What becomes hard is when the behaviors push people away or turn people off.

Frederica Freyberg:
Tammy Frey says after her mother died and was removed from her father’s care because of abuse, her anger would erupt.

Tammy Frey:
I got charged with battery, and then I spent most of my years in detention.

Elizabeth Hudson:
One of the big shifts in perspective is being able to see the behavior as a communication.

Frederica Freyberg:
Communication as the expression of trauma. But with trauma informed care, the point is to not blame or shame people for their behavior.

Day care worker:
Do you want to fix my hair?

Little girl:
Yeah.

Tim Grove:
We know that one of the hallmark symptoms of kids trying to work their way through that overwhelming stress, for some of them, is to stare blankly at the chalk board.

Frederica Freyberg:
An experience familiar to Alisha Fox.

Alisha Fox:
But there’s ways to deal with it now.

Tim Grove:
And the teacher’s approach is critical. If I approach her and I say, “Hey,” and maybe startle her further by banging on the table, I’m actually potentially going to make it worse. If I’m more careful and informed about how I approach her, I might actually help her relax and settle down and make it better.

Elizabeth Hudson:
What we know about many of these kids is they have had to adapt to the stress in their life by, in many ways, shutting down when it comes to relationships because relationships have been the hardship.

Frederica Freyberg:
For more information and to view the entire documentary, you can go to wpt.org/trauma.
Our next guest is taking the lead in trying to get more state funding for trauma informed programming for children outside the school setting. Greg Lempke-Rochon is CEO of the Fox Valley Boys and Girls Club. He joins us from Menasha and thanks very much for doing so.

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
Good evening.

Frederica Freyberg:
How much in grant funding are proponents seeking?

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
We have a proposal on the table for $7.5 million over a two-year time frame, which would allow us to access a minimum of fifty $150,000 grants that would go to after school providers around the state.

Frederica Freyberg:
And what would the after school providers be doing with that money if they were to be awarded it?

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
Broadly speaking, it would allow after school providers like YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs, and others to improve their trauma responsiveness to the many, many, many young people that are traumatized, have high levels of adverse childhood experiences that are present in those after school environments. More specifically, what the funding would allow is for the retention of a trauma certified professional who would coordinate direct response as well as help improve the overall climate for kids who, again, have a high level of adverse childhood experiences.

Frederica Freyberg:
How important is that kind of coordination?

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
It’s absolutely essential. We, today, see over 40,000 kids a day in after school programs around the state of Wisconsin. Many of our after school providers, Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs specifically, either target kids who are most in need of help and support or create access, barrier-free access to kids who are most in need of help and support. The result is that we serve large numbers of young people who are suffering from the impact of a lot of adverse childhood experiences. To give you just a very quick example, part of our work to assess the population that we serve, we were able to identify, in our organization, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley, 1300 children that either certainly have or are likely to have been victims of crime during their childhood. So there’s a huge population in these environments in great need of help and support.

Frederica Freyberg:
How will the reach be greater with the combined efforts of the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs and the after school network?

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
The easiest answer to that is by, together, we are able to expand our reach and make sure that the most — highest number of kids possible and highest number of communities possible are able to be impacted by these dollars. The deeper and, I think, in some respects, more important part of why it’s so important for us to be collaborating is that trauma informed response really is a culture shift. And we can’t change culture in small ways. We need to do that at scale. And when we come together — and we need to do it in an aligned way so when we come together with Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs and the Wisconsin After school Network and other providers, together all moving in the same direction, our impact is exponentially greater.

Frederica Freyberg:
How long in coming is this kind of approach to this problem of trauma in children?

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
I would offer that it’s — it’s been coming for a while, but because of a lack of human resources, financial resources, and a relatively thin infrastructure in terms of professional development opportunities, the after school arena is behind the curve. Schools are little bit more ahead of us at this particular point in time. I will give you just a very quick example. Again, relative to our organization, one of the things or a couple of the things that we’ve been able to do in our last few years or even longer, quite frankly, is build programs and services that involve trauma certified mental health professionals. We have a program called the Center for Grieving Children which supports kids who have suffered the loss of a loved one through death. Sometimes that death being a suicide or sometimes as a result of a domestic violence incident. We have those kinds of things in place in our organization. Unfortunately, we’re the exception, not the rule. We need to see more after school providers take this step forward. They want to. They just need the help to do so.

Frederica Freyberg:
How could this kind of programming change the trajectory for children who experienced trauma?

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
Kids that have suffered from trauma and are traumatized need to be wrapped around with support and help. We know that there’s really only truly one evidence-based response to mitigate the impact of trauma, and that’s connecting kids to caring adults. That is the heart and soul of what good quality after school programs do. Lots of fun activities and educational activities. The programs and services are important, but at its heart, it’s about those young people and connecting to adults who care, building those relationships that help them feel safe, and help them see their future in a different way than they might have otherwise. So if we’re able to do this, the opportunity is there to change the trajectory, the life trajectory for hundreds, even thousands of young people across the state.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Greg Lempke-Rochon, thank you very much.

Greg Lempke-Rochon:
Thank you so much.