Update on Project to Date

Over the past six months there have been approximately twenty three trainings at five local domestic violence crisis center programs to educate advocates about substance abuse, mental illness and trauma and how it affects the empowering work we do with survivors of trauma. In addition, a couple of community collaboration efforts have been organized in areas where very little inter-agency contact had been occurring. Outreach has been made to local homeless programs, social services agencies, private therapists and the department of corrections. Additional training has been offered and accepted by many of these agencies as interest and a desire to know about trauma-informed services grows. In one case, the local domestic violence and homeless shelter programs came together for training on trauma and homelessness and are now collaborating to review policies and procedures in order to have a common voice in the community about providing trauma informed shelter services.

Prevention Innovations, a consulting, training and research unit of the University of New Hampshire, has provided their expertise in evaluating the project and is currently forming focus groups with consumer survivors to determine how crisis centers are meeting their needs.

Over the next few months, another three to four crisis centers will be coming on board the Open Doors project. These centers will receive the same training as the initial five projects and community collaboration will be a goal for their catchment areas. New Hampshire has fourteen crisis centers and the plan is for all fourteen centers to have received training before the end of 2011.

We are currently in the beginning stages of planning for a state-wide mental health and trauma training for domestic violence programs and interested mental health clinicians/therapists for sometimes next summer with Carole Warshaw and Terri Pease. A mailing list of therapists is currently being compiled in hopes to reach out to as many providers as possible.

The most exciting part of the initiative is the ongoing conversation about providing trauma informed services to survivors and involving as many community partners as possible. The NH Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is dedicated to making this a part of its messaging and becoming a voice for trauma survivors.