During the “Lunch and Learn” informational session on Monday, March 13th, the Steering Committee of the WAWF had the opportunity to listen to updates from the 2022-2023 grant recipients. The focus for this year’s grants was to provide trauma informed care training to a wide array of professionals in Kandiyohi County. The impact from these grants was positive and strong, as conveyed by the grant recipients.
Tina Mages, from Kandiyohi County Health and Human Services, reported that the grant funds were used to help provide trauma informed training to approximately 60 childcare providers in Kandiyohi County. Furthermore, training was also provided to about 250 foster and adoptive parents on how to support children dealing with trauma. Positive feedback was gathered from both sessions with attendees sharing, “Everybody should hear this. Everybody should get this training.”
Project Turnabout (PTAB) used the grant money to train 120 area professionals on the Willmar PTAB campus. Megan Harms stated that Project Turnabout wanted to develop outreach within the local community, therefore deciding to use the grant money and their knowledge to provide trauma informed care training to attendees varying from physicians to receptionists. Megan noted that the future focus with these trainings needs to be expanded within our communities to additional professionals.
Working alongside Project Turnabout, Lutheran Social Services has decided to train their staff of about 40 employees. Training will be provided to individuals from social work, nursing, youth and refuge services, individuals working with the senior population, as well as with individuals needing support for independent living skills. Cherrish Holland noted, “We are excited to bring our staff together for this training. We often work as silos. It will be great to get to know what we all do.”
The Lunch and Learn concluded with a similar message given by all three grant recipients. There is still a large amount of interest from area professionals wanting to attend and be trained on trauma informed care. If there is one gap that was clear it is that this training needs to be provided to the general community at large, from Community Education opportunities to church groups.