RUNNING HEAD: Trauma Informed Organizations
TRAUMA INFORMED
ORGANIZATIONS: LEARNING
HOW TO IMPLEMENT ACES
Presented by: Marty Hasz, Danielle Burbage, and Mollie-Beth Brewer
APRIL 27, 2019
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY
Trauma Informed Organizations: Learning How to Implement ACEs
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Index:
Title and Subject Area…
Audience…
Assessment of needs of Consultee…
Purpose, Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes…
Activities to Implement…
6
7
8
Qualifications of Participants…
Budget…
Audio and Visual Equipment…
Difficulties and Ethical Concerns…
Trauma Informed Organizations: Learning How to Implement ACEs
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Section 1: Title and Subject Area
The subject area for our consultation workshop is Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), more
specifically the ACEs test and scores. The ACEs test determines the level or amount of ACEs an
individual has experienced, and gives a score at the end of the assessment. The score
determines how at-risk an individual may be for certain diseases or behaviors later in life. We
hope to educate individuals involved in community organizations such as churches, athletic
programs, and counseling centers to become aware of the statistics surrounding ACEs, how to
score an ACEs assessment, and how to identify helpful resources for those who have
experiences ACEs.
Section 2: Audience
Our intended audience is any community organization that provides a helping service to
individuals. For example, we each picked a community organization that we interact with
regularly in our everyday lives. We interviewed churches, athletic departments, and counseling
centers. Each of these community organizations deals with individuals on micro levels, as well
as macro levels, and provides a service to them. By understanding ACEs and the impact they
can have on individuals, these organizations can become more trauma-informed when
providing services to the public. A broad variety of helping organizations could benefit from
understanding ACEs and ACEs scores, however, we’ve chosen these three for our initial
consultation presentation.
Section 3: Assessment of needs of Consultee
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Our presentation is all about being trauma informed from an organization standpoint and also
knowing what ACE’s (adverse childhood experiences) is and how to deal with it. As a group we
decided to interview three different organizations and those three were, counseling services,
athletic department on the university level and church organizations. We came up with five
questions and those questions were:
1. Do you know the term ACE or what is an adverse childhood experience?
2. How much impact does ACE’s have in your organization, with you or others/clients you
serve?
3. Do you believe that this organization is a trauma-informed organization? According to the
National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, when a human service program takes the step to
become trauma informed, every part of its organization, management, and service delivery
system is assessed and potentially modified to include a basic understanding of how trauma
affects the life of an individual seeking services. (SAMHSA, 2013)
4. In the past, have there been efforts to address ACE’s in your organization?
5. How does your organization’s knowledge of aces affect client care/treatment and
interventions?
After interviewing the different organizations our findings led us to believe that most
organizations outside of counseling services were trauma informed but only to a certain extent.
Counseling services knew what ACE’s stood for and was trauma informed and they also had
things in place to address children and adults who were dealing with issues that steamed from
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adverse childhood experience(s). Outside of the counseling services the other organizations
were trauma informed but that was the extent. Some were familiar with the term ACE’s but
that was the scope of their understanding. There was no plan of action in place to serve the
people they encountered on a daily bases and there was not understanding on how to use their
knowledge of ACE’s. Our findings has shown us that organizations are in need for being
educated on trauma and more specifically how ACE’s affects not only children but also adults
when this specific form of trauma has not been addressed early on.
Section 4: Purpose, Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes
The purpose of this workshop is to educate community organizations, particularly
helping organizations, about the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on individuals
receiving services from their organizations. We intend to go over the definition of ACEs, how to
give and score an ACEs assessment, what ACEs scores indicate, and what resources are
available to help individuals with certain ACEs scores. Our goals and objectives are as follows:
Goal 1: Define ACEs and ACEs test
Objective 1: Introduce ACEs through presentation and activities
Objective 2: Introduce ACEs test through presentation and activities
Goal 2: Understanding how ACEs scores can affect individuals later in life
Objective 1: Give statistics and examples to audience through presentation
Objective 2: Use skit to illustrate how ACEs can affect individuals throughout life
Goal 3: Educate professionals on how to score an ACEs test
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Objective 1: Give examples of how to score ACEs test during presentation
Objective 2: Give audience opportunity to score a test
Goal 4: Educate professionals on how to incorporate ACEs scores into their organizations to
become more trauma-informed
Objective 1: Introduce ideas for the organizations to incorporate scores through presentation
and activities
Objective 2: Have a brainstorm session with audience to come up with ways to incorporate
scores that fit their particular organization
Goal 5: Identify resources to help individuals involved in the organization get help based on
ACEs score and specific needs related to the ACE(s)
Objective 1: Identify resources on presentation
Objective 2: Hold brainstorm session to come up with resources that fit the specific audience’s
needs
In order to measure the goals within the workshop after the first break we will hand out
a sheet with two questions; what does ACEs stand for and give us the definition of ACEs in your
own words. During the presentation we will hand out a sheet that SAMHSA’s list as the four R’s
of a trauma-informed organization. Toward the end of the presentation we will hand out a
multiple-choice sheet and ask the participants to take the short quiz. As we wrap up the
presentation we go back over and ask the participants three questions; what does ACEs stand
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for, Summarize what ACE’s is and name some things that trauma-informed organizations have
in common?
Section 5: Activities to Implement
In this presentation we want to teach organizations about ACE’s and how it affects children well
into adulthood. Our goal with this presentation is to teach organizations about ACE’s, how to
understand the ACEs test, educate professional on how to become a more trauma informed
organization and connect individuals with resources in seeking out help with qualified services.
The presentation that we plan to present has several activities for the audience to take part in.
