From Our CEO, Kelly O’Lague Dulka

“Every kid is ONE caring adult away from being a success story.” ~Josh Shipp

Over the past year, we have offered a series of workshops on the impact of trauma on children. With a goal of helping parents, child care providers, educators, therapists and others who work with and care for children understand how stress and trauma affect all aspects of a child’s development, participants in our Trauma-Informed Care Series have learned how to recognize the signs of trauma and have developed tools and strategies to help children heal.

Trauma includes a variety of adverse experiences like physical or sexual abuse, violence in the home, substance abuse by a parent, sudden loss of a loved one (sibling, parent, grandparent, care provider, etc.), mental illness of a family member. We know that trauma can alter the way a child sees the world, making it suddenly seem a much more dangerous and frightening place. Children may find it more difficult to trust both their environment and the people in it. What we know to be true is that healing can and does take place and that the impact of one caring adult can make all the difference in how that healing happens.

As we’ve gathered to learn about Trauma-Informed Care, I have asked participants to take a moment to think about the adults who were there for them when they were kids. Some have said it was a parent or grandparent. Others said there was a special coach or teacher. Others have identified neighbors, parents of their friends or friends of their parents. Whoever it was for each of them, one caring adult made an impact.

Who was the caring adult in your childhood? And for whom are you that caring adult?