A trauma response can be inherited from parents as well as from everyday societal factors and events.
Socio-cultural trauma is not talked about often but experienced daily by marginalized and oppressed people. Dr. Kenneth Hardy suggests that children’s response to socio-cultural trauma could be “precipitated by the biased treatment their parents, community or ethnic group have experienced throughout the history of this country.”
For people living with unresolved trauma, toxic stress can trigger a trauma response of fight, flight, or freeze. In people of color, these responses are often mislabeled as defiant, oppositional, or disinterested rather than more accurately as protective, guarded, or emotionally numb. This workshop will present information on forms of socio-cultural trauma, including race-based trauma, and offer a comprehensive trauma-informed response to children and their families.
Participants will learn:
Participants will receive 4 CE credit hours upon completion (WAFCA will issue credits)
Patricia Parker is currently a full-time Curriculum and Instruction Manager for the Milwaukee Child Welfare Partnership located in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Patricia received her degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate certificate in Community Mental Health from the Trinity College of Vermont. Patricia has worked as a consultant/trainer with the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice-University of Iowa since 1989. Ms. Parker has over thirty-eight years of experience working in the human services. She has provided in-home family therapy, individual therapy, group therapies, strength-based community development practices in Wilmington, North Carolina, Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin and provided consultation, technical assistance, and training services in 30 states across the country.
Dawn Shelton-Williams is the Quality Specialist at Aurora Family Service (Aurora Health Care). She is responsible for the agency’s quality program including the agency’s accreditation process with the Council on Accreditation. Dawn is also the social work navigator for the agency’s Wisconsin Well Woman Program – Social Work Navigation. Her professional experience is in the areas of mental health, health care, and child welfare. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for the State of Wisconsin, she is also in private practice at Sebastian Family Psychology Practice, LLC. Ms. Shelton-Williams has over 29 years of providing clinical services to children and families. Dawn is active in the community. She is President for NASW-WI’s Board and serves on the Governor’s Council on Mental Health.
