How do some professionals thrive in their careers, while others experience burnout from vicarious trauma? This is a question leaders are asking, as many agree staff retention is the number one challenge in organizations today. Vicarious trauma is an occupational hazard. It causes significant turnover and is costly to professionals, the clients receiving treatment, their organizations, and the broader profession.

In response to this ‘cost of caring,’ we have focused attention on vicarious trauma in attempts to mitigate the symptoms in employees through clinical supervision, work-life balance, and burnout prevention strategies. Even with this intensive knowledge and effort, the attrition data has not changed. We are missing something.

Vicarious resilience is the experience of witnessing healing in others, resulting in personal resilience development. Experiencing vicarious resilience is what can keep all of us healthy, strong, and excited about our work. There is a clear process of developing vicarious resilience through four specific phases of learning and growth. This four-phase developmental process is shaped through supportive leadership and management and supervision. This partnership between professionals and supportive leaders is the link to ensuring the development of vicarious resilience. Through expert use of emotional intelligence and supportive leadership models, the phenomenon of vicarious resilience brings renewed life to helping professionals and positively impacts both treatment and business outcomes.

In this session, learn about research around professionals who exhibited strong traits of vicarious resilience. Participants will gain a foundation in the literature on the history of children’s mental health and the elements of leadership. Understanding the process of how vicarious resilience is developed will allow you to bring this to your organization. With the tools given you can begin to shift the focus from trauma to resilience in your professionals and see the positive impact.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Leslie Chaplin
Founder
Solare Well-being, LLC

At The Children’s Center, we believe that every child deserves to dream and become the amazing person they were born to be. But for far too many Greater Detroit children, and Black boys in particular, their life’s possibility is often eclipsed by the color of their skin, their identity, and the trauma they have experienced. After a thorough dive into individual, community, and national level data, it became evident that the critical needs of Black boys and their families needed to become a focal point of service delivery not only at The Children’s Center, but also at other organizations and systems that touch the lives of Black boys. Data indicates that Black boys are disproportionately impacted by trauma and structural and systemic racism compared to their peers of other races. As a leading behavioral health and child welfare organization in Detroit, The Children’s Center recognized it had a responsibility to address these disparities and that it was going to take a bold, innovative, and courageous approach. In this pursuit, The Children’s Center embarked on a transformational systems change effort called, Crisis to Connection: An Imperative for Our Black Boys.

Crisis to Connection is an organizational and systems change effort, focused on aligning beliefs, values, and actions using a trauma-informed and anti-racist framework to better respond to and address the needs of Black boys in Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan. Achieving his imperative will require intentional, long-term commitment by The Children’s Center and the community at large. As such, bringing the community together and elevating the voices of historically marginalized individuals is a significant component of this effort. In this interactive presentation, participants will learn about how trauma and racism impact the health outcomes of individuals and communities, receive an overview of Crisis to Connection’s three-phased approach to systems change, and take away strategies to implement trauma-informed and anti-racist practices within their own organizations and communities. Together, with our collective power and resources, Black boys can heal from their experiences of trauma and live in a world where they are free to live their dreams.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Daicia Price
Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work
University of Michigan

Kelvin Brown
Program Manager
The Children’s Center
@TCC_Kelvin

Aubrey Gilliland
Project Coordinator
The Children’s Center
@TCC_Aubrey

Community-based organizations provide critical direct supports to individuals, families, and communities who are often left disenfranchised due to the racial inequities embedded in our country’s systems that marginalize the health and well-being of Black, Indigenous, and people of color. It is imperative for these organizations to recognize the larger transformative potential they, as the nexus to communities, have in improving the context in which people live their lives (i.e., the social determinants of health).

Social sector leaders must recognize that the journey to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is a process that oftentimes is messy, uncomfortable, and reveals vulnerabilities. Social sector leaders will understand and apply the equation of leaning into the EDI journey, which requires adaptive leadership skills, showing up as our authentic selves, and relentless persistence.

This session will explore specific ways organizations can deepen their commitment to advancing EDI using a matrix developed by Social Current. From the board to every staff member in an organization, we recognize the significant role every person in an organization has in this work.

We invite you to hear from organizations who are currently deeply engaged in EDI work and at different points in the journey. Learn about their respective challenges and opportunities, as well as how their organizations and communities are becoming more equitable, as a result of measurable systems change.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Undraye Howard
Vice President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Social Current

Marlena Torres
COO
Children’s Home Society of Washington

Angela Bell
Director of Program Operations
The Up Center

This presentation will discuss a translational research approach that is linking neuroimaging with applied research to improve trauma-informed services for children and families. Results from neuroimaging studies using functional MRI (fMRI) and applied research on assessment and treatment of trauma and abuse will be shared, and implications for practice and policy will be discussed.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Patrick Tyler, Ph.D., LIMHP, LPC
Senior Director of the Child and Family Translational Research Center
Boys Town

Karina Blair, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Boys Town National Research Hospital