The Family Violence Prevention and Services Program (FVPSA) is pleased to announce a special online collection of trauma-informed resources for domestic violence advocates and survivors. Developed with support from the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), this collection was created by the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.
Building on over 20 years of work, this three-part series by the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma Mental Health (NCDVTMH) integrates a trauma-informed victim services approach with advocacy for domestic violence survivors. In partnership with the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV), NCDVTMH developed this collection to bring together the resources on trauma and trauma-informed work that are most relevant to domestic violence programs and advocates. Available on VAWnet.org, the national online resource center on violence against women, the Trauma-Informed Domestic Violence Services Special Collection features:
· Part I: Understanding the Trauma-Informed Framework and Approach, which provides an overview of the framework and research supporting trauma-informed approaches to working with survivors and their children.
· Part II: Building Program Capacity, which provides practical tools and resources to assist domestic violence programs with building capacity to implement trauma-informed services; and,
· Part III: Developing Collaborations and Increasing Access, which includes resources for establishing partnerships among service providers to ensure that survivors and their children have access to culturally relevant and trauma-informed domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse services.
Useful for both mental health service providers and domestic violence advocates, this comprehensive collection is a powerful tool for bridging perspectives and building collaboration between fields. As Carole Warshaw, Executive Director of NCDVTMH, explains: “Using a trauma-informed approach has come to mean that everyone working in a service setting understands the impact of trauma in a similar way and shares certain values and goals, and that all the services and supports that are offered are designed to prevent retraumatization and to promote healing and recovery.\"
FYSB is proud to support the combined work of NCDVTMH and NRCDV to share this resource with the domestic violence and mental health fields. With greater collaboration, the experiences of trauma survivors accessing services will continue to improve.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/news/trauma-informed-dv-services-20140807