Trauma-informed care is essential to successful peacebuilding practice.
Recently, in collaboration with the Robert Bosch Foundation, ALLMEP started its Trauma in Peacebuilding program. The program is geared to help member organizations hold space for community grieving and psychosocial challenges related to the last year. Before laying the foundations of this program, the ALLMEP team explored questions of why this work is important, what are its origins, and how do the themes of peacebuilding and trauma-informed care coincide across time.
Trauma-informed care is not a new approach; its origins are from dealing with veterans who suffered both physical and mental trauma. The movement has since expanded beyond the context of war and has been used as a methodology to treat children in situations of abuse and neglect, as well as adult victims of harassment or discrimination. Eventually, the International Society for Traumatic Stress was founded in the United States in 1985. Four years later, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs created the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The Trauma Informed Care Center, powered by the Center for Health Care Strategies, recognizes trauma informed care to accomplish a multitude of goals. Some of these include the ability to recognize physical and emotional symptoms of trauma, the realization of trauma’s widespread impact on the body and mind, and the avoidance of re-traumatization. Often, this approach plays out as patient care methodologies in formal health institutions. The peacebuilding movement has extrapolated this method to best operate at the organizational level.
In the context of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, there are several avenues in which trauma manifests. The first is through intergenerational trauma due to the nature of continued cycles of harm and displacement. Without proper intervention, children of those raised by survivors of trauma might experience physical and mental side effects. It is critical that peacebuilders understand the nature of this systematic disenfranchisement when interacting with local populations, specifically in the context of the refugee and internally displaced persons, persons living under sustained violence, and persons living under occupation.
Smaller populations, shared storytelling, and a continuing news and social media cycle of violent imagery in the region makes secondary trauma a pertinent subsector of trauma that is experienced in Israel/Palestine. Secondary trauma manifests from witnessing or hearing about others experiencing traumatic or violent incidents. As a result, organizations must provide programming that allows for recognition of this trauma and the ability to step away, if necessary, for well-being betterment.
Severe violence, forced migration, and aggressive verbiage serve as some of the main catalysts of trauma for regional populations. The effects of war can thus extend beyond those who directly experience it, both passed along between peers, family units, and colleagues. ALLMEP aims to aggregate this knowledge in the development of our peacebuilding programs. Equipping our member organization to deal with personal trauma, train fellow staff members, and build beyond a “safe space” approach will make peacebuilding more holistic and empathetic, and help meet the unique challenges of peacebuilding work at this critical time. Learn more about this program with our partner, Robert Bosch Foundation.
