Seven Key Traits of a Trauma-Informed Community

Individuals can experience trauma in a variety of ways, but their recovery will be improved when supported by a trauma-informed community. The hallmark characteristics of a trauma-informed community will be similar regardless of its type, which may include a school, a neighborhood group, a circle of friends, or any other supportive organization. Leading traumatologists like Bessel van der Kolk, Babette Rothschild, Robert Macy, Charles Figley, Don Catherall, Robert Anda, and Vincent Felitti have identified a number of aspects they’ve seen across trauma-informed communities.

What are the key traits of a trauma-informed community? 

1. Trauma-informed communities acknowledge the vast scope of adverse experiences. Recent research has found that many more community members have been exposed to and find difficulty adjusting to adverse experiences than previously understood. Appreciating the vast scope of events that can create trauma (including, but not limited to, severe storms, earthquakes, fires, unemployment, moving, loss of housing, domestic violence, substance abuse, divorce, mental health concerns, physical or emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, mass violence, gun or knife violence, hate crimes, terrorism, and industrial accidents, among others) is key to understanding the needs of individual community members and the community as whole. 
2. Trauma-informed communities recognize the impact of those adverse experiences. Trauma occurs when a person or group perceives they or their sense of well-being (family, income, housing, community, etc.) is threatened, and their ability to cope is overwhelmed. The ripple effects of emotional and biological reactions can have serious impacts on health and relational functioning, including a reduction in life expectancy and the passing of trauma through generations (transgenerational trauma).
3. Trauma-informed communities shift their perspective. This shift creates a new sense of reality or normalcy. It is practiced by caregivers and faithful neighbors who change their questions from "what is wrong with you" and "why are you doing that" to "what happened?" They are compassionately curious, and interested to honestly bear witness to adverse experiences from the past that may be influencing fear or defense tactics in the present. They view forms of "acting out" as opportunities for building trustworthy and emotionally safe relationships. 
4. Trauma-informed communities practice self-regulation. Trauma-informed interventions and care practices focus on the more primitive or "lower" parts of the brain, where "fight or flight" chemical reactions are rooted. They understand that trauma induces time-disorientation, when fight or flight tactics from the past are operational in the present when they are no longer necessary. Trauma-informed persons understand that those resources are necessary at times of real threat, and can practice resolving hypervigilance and overactive defensive stances through various sensory strategies. They also incorporate practices for acknowledging that emotions exist and can be managed.
5. Trauma-informed communities actively build and sustain relationships. Relationships are key to healing from trauma. Trauma-informed communities practice being trustworthy and reliable for one another. Strong relationships help create and maintain resilience. 
6. Trauma-informed communities have senses of purpose. Members of trauma-informed communities wake up in the morning interested to participate in the corporate meaning-making they share among each other, and this interest and engagement is contagious. They make space to listen to one another and to grow in renewed understandings of what is life-giving to the persons involved in the body of the community. Rather than trying to fix problems for them, trauma-informed communities are marked by directing interventions and healing practices that are created and driven by persons-in-healing being served and growing in their own sense of what truly is resourceful.​
7. ​​Trauma-informed communities recognize that practicing care means being personally impacted by others traumatic experiences. They consistently practice ongoing self-care. They allow themselves to be held accountable by trustworthy friends or colleagues beyond the community, they identify specific limits, maintain current and effective referral practices, and they practice life-giving work/life rhythms.

As communities seek to cultivate these trauma-informed practices, they express a sense of living in the world that directly counters trauma by acknowledging the truth of what has happened and creating a safe space to heal. 

*These traits are adapted for from a template provided by St. Aemilian-Lakeside, Inc., for providing trauma-informed care and based on the works of Bessel van der Kolk, Babette Rothschild, Robert Macy, Charles Figley, Don Catherall, Robert Anda, and Vincett Felitti.

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Rev. Dr. Kate Wiebe serves as the Executive Director of ICTG. She is an organizational health consultant and pastoral psychotherapist. She lives with her family in Santa Barbara, CA.