- Good afternoon, everyone. Quite a buzz going on in the room. We've got lots of attendees. It's great
- to see some faces back from vacation that we haven't seen in a while. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary
- Club's weekly celebration of service. My name is Tracy Yovanovich, and I'm honored to serve as your
- president. And please silence your electronic devices. And in honor of Labor Day next week, if you are
- able, please stand and we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance.
- I pledge allegiance to the flag and the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,
- one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And as you all know,
- or those of you who've been coming recently, I am doing the Where in the World series. If I can get
- this quicker to work. Can you forward it?
- Okay, there we go. So, many of you may know that Sally just returned from being in Ireland, and she
- shared a little sign. If you look in the middle, she saw a sign for Rotary Cork County and Cork City.
- So, I thought I would do a little investigation to see what it is that they do in Ireland to raise and
- help the community projects. And there were a couple of—and we have some screen issues, so use your
- imagination here.
- As I said, we have technical difficulties occasionally. And so what you see, they do Friendship Night,
- and Art, you're going to love this one, Friendship Night for over 200 senior citizens at Cork City Hall
- for an evening of music, dance and laughter. The Army Band performs, and the dance floor comes alive
- with old friends and news, sharing waltzes, quick steps and line dances.
- So, there's something to think about. They also do Art from Inside, which is a collaboration between
- Cork Prison, the education unit at the university, and the Rotary Club. And it provides an opportunity
- for prisoners to display talents during incarceration and raise funds for the Children's Leukemia
- Association. And then the last one that I'm going to bring up is the Cork
- tree of remembrance and it's adorned every year that if you look at the Christmas tree there those are
- yellow ribbons it's adorned every year with thousands of yellow ribbons each carrying handwritten messages
- of love remembrance and hope for family and friends near and far and has raised over 1.2 million pounds
- not dollars pounds for local charities since 2003 so heroes
- Sorry, euros. What was I thinking? Yeah, that's the part of Ireland that's down south. So anyway, euros.
- But anyway, those are some fun ideas of something that they do elsewhere in the world. And after that,
- I would like to invite Carol Ann Hossler up for our reflection.
- Good afternoon. Thanks for that. Do we, that is you and I, share this post-vacation memory? Write a
- two-page essay on what you did during vacation. When I lived in Connecticut, I hated that assignment.
- Most of the kids went to really exciting places, Switzerland, Vermont,
- Florida. I went to Campo Beach, which was located about 10 miles from our house, and I didn't go to
- camp. I've just returned from vacation to California, where Don and I visited friends, longtime friends.
- This trip was a royal pain in the neck to set up, and I'm not talking about the airline tickets. We
- had several friends
- we hoped to see. And when we contacted them, they were very happy that we were coming. But, and to no
- surprise, everyone has their own schedule. And most families want to get together during the summer,
- which is totally understandable. But the process of figuring out the dates, the times, and the whereabouts
- of connecting was tricky to say the least.
- It felt like we were moving the chairs around on the deck. And at one point, we seriously considered
- canceling the trip altogether. I'm so glad we didn't. It was a nostalgic time at every stop. We rehashed
- shared memories and times of days gone by. The journey from Sacramento to San Diego provided us with
- a glimpse into the treasure
- times that are etched into our hearts and minds. Let me introduce you to some of our friends and briefly
- share about those friendships and some lessons learned. We met Mary Lou and Jim at the beginning of
- the new year, new faculty event at Shawnee Bluffs. Some of you may remember that. That friendship spans
- 40 years. Chris was my college roommate.
- I learned about Manzanar from her. Her parents were interned there. It's a 57-year friendship. College
- years are great years for friendship foundations. Melinda, college roommate, 57 years. Kate and Tom,
- college friends, 55 years. Mike and Sue, college friends, and basketball buddy, 58 years. Barron and
- Joanie, college roommate,
- 55 years. Reg and Peg, 54 years. College friends who share common connections to beloved mentors and
- friends from the past, Ron and Eilidh Jean, Jerry and Jan. Doug and Pam, basketball buddy and teaching
- colleague, 55 years. Connie and John, concert choir connection, 57 years. Then there's Margaret, 61 years.
- I met Margaret during summer school at Point Loma High School. I was new to San Diego and we connected
- immediately. Fortunately, there was room for me in her social network. Sometimes you just need one friend,
- especially if the school is big. We've shared life with all these people and they've shared theirs through
- joyous days and sad ones. Most importantly,
- They supported us and loved us as we made the most difficult decision of our lives to place our son,
- Jonathan, in a group home. And not only that, they never, ever forget him and the challenges he faces
- every day. That's 923 years of friendship. But I would be remiss if I didn't add in the years for Mike and John.
- With those years added in, the total becomes 1,016. Husbands, dear friends who have passed away, but
- whose spirits were with us during our time with Chris and Melinda. Three couples married just a week
- apart in 1971. We always said we'd share a 150th anniversary. It wasn't to be, but the memories are
- vivid and the friendship remains strong.
- Is it true that you can never make a new old friend? Maybe so, maybe no. But if you find yourself looking
- back on friendship, my wish for you is that you have friendships that are as beautiful and treasured
- as what I've experienced.
- Thank you, Carol Ann. That conjured up visions of the Big Chill reunion. It's lovely. And for introductions
- of guests, Katie. Hello, everyone. I'm here to introduce today's guests. First, we have, oh, sorry.
- When I say your name, if you are able, please stand so that we can recognize you and welcome you to
- Rotary. First, we have Ann Bright, guest of Jim Bright.
- Next, we have Mara Green, guest of Leanne Ratcliffe. Nicole Mante, also guest of Leanne Ratcliffe. Brian,
- is this Hayne? All right, from Bloomington North. Sorry, Brian. Next, we have Kerry Martin, guest of
- Liz Irwin.
- and Michelle Kirby, also guest of Liz Erwin. And do we have any guests online? No, we do not. Just all
- Rotarians here. All right. Thanks, Leslie. Thank you, Katie. And now for birthdays and anniversaries.
- If you could bring it to that page for me, Tyler. We have Laurie Garrity on the second, Jeremy Graham
- on the 31st,
- Don Hossler on September 3, Maryland, September 5, and Shelly Yoder just had one on the 30th. Anniversaries,
- Peyton Flynn for one year, Emily Herman four years, Diana Hoffman two years, Charlie Osburn 34 years,
- Leanne Ratliff two years, and Eric Spoonmore two years. So there's the anniversaries and birthdays.
- And for announcements, just reminders, no one signed up for reflections yet. So we still have three
- openings for September. There is a scholarship committee meeting right after this event here in the
- room. And then quick additions, December 10th, we'll be having our holiday party. So get that on your
- calendar. We'll be doing that at the country club. And then again, toast. We have the rotary toast tickets,
- individual tickets go on sale next week. Is that right, Brian?
- next Tuesday. So still got quite a few tables that we can sell. If you want to sit with specific people,
- tables are your best bet. Do us all a favor and get them while the getting's good. And with that, I'd
- like to bring up, I don't even know how to describe you, Mr. Baker for a very special presentation.
- And when I say that, you'll understand why when you see him.
- Can you see me okay? Okay, just wanna make sure. So I just also wanna mention that I didn't tell my
- wife to sign as a guest, but my wife Beverly is with me today. And I wanna thank her, especially thank
- her for picking this out for me. So, maybe. So good afternoon, Rotarians and guests. As you might have
- noticed today is special for me and it is gonna be for the club. It's a special presentation of Paul
- Harris Fellow.
- They're all special, but I thought I would try to dress this one up just a little bit. I know you're
- aware that Rory does good in the world, but here's some results from 2025, 2026 for Rory International
- that sort of make a point. $477 million donated, not all by us, but Rory returns all over the world.
- 1,800 global grants,
- The vaccinations are over 350 million people in 128 countries, protecting people from malaria and other
- major diseases. These are made possible by donations from Rotarians all over the world, like Rotarians
- in this room. So thank you for that. Okay, today we're going to have a special mystery Rotarian recognized.
- One of our newest members,
- less than a month. This person has collected more crayons, school supplies, packed more food boxes,
- volunteered at teacher warehouse more hours almost than anyone in our club and only been a member for
- less than a month. Any guesses? You have a guess? Oh, okay, okay. Maybe this'll help.
- She once acted as assistant district governor, although not on official position. Any guesses? Ann Bright,
- would you please come forward? Katie, Katie.
- You stand here, it'll be easier to embarrass you, okay? Okay. Just, I have just a few notes.
- First of all, has anyone ever told you you spell your first name wrong? Yes. And you really spent a
- year of high school in Nova Scotia. So how was that? Wonderful. Best year of education I ever had. And
- later taught school in Newfoundland? For how long? Two years. Okay.
- Well, I heard special sisters on the news this morning. They have an open position teaching geography
- lessons about the Great Lakes, if you're interested. Even though you've worked tirelessly by Jim's side
- in raising money for a beacon and other causes and helping him with all of his roadie duties, including
- when he was our district governor,
- and club president. Service above self-attitude made it easy for a club to make you a Paul Harris Fellow
- Plus One. We know your extended family of kids have been impacted along with Jim. Would all love to
- be here with you, recognize your service to others today. Often quietly behind the scenes, you are an
- inspiration and real force of nature. So would you please welcome
- We come over here, Natalie and Penner, and would everyone please rise and join me in recognizing and
- with the knee bright.
- Hold on and we have one more thing so I think we may have thrown you for a loop on the questions by
- saying the member less than a month did that throw you guys so the board voted and you are officially
- an honorary member for life in the club
- So please, after wearing that outfit, don't stop. And with that, Kyla Cox Deckard, if you could introduce
- our speaker. Congratulations, Anne. That is very exciting. I'm thrilled to be here for this honor.
- So our guest speaker today is a colleague of mine from Indiana University. John M. Kiesler is an alum
- of the University of Buffalo, New York and associate professor tenured at Indiana University School
- of Social Work here on the Bloomington campus. He teaches in the graduate program and engages students
- in innovative community focused initiatives to complement their classroom education.
- His scholarship focuses on adversity, trauma-informed care, and quality of life in the disability service
- industry and in rural communities. He has presented and published nationally and internationally. His
- teaching and research has been honored with awards from Indiana University, University at Buffalo, ABAI,
- National Association for the Duly Diagnosed, and American Association of Intellectual and Developmental
- Disabilities.
- John was among the first faculty members who I had the good fortune to work with at the Center for Rural
- Engagement. He was part of the pilot program Sustaining Hoosier Communities, which has continued and
- is thriving today, partnering with its seventh community this year in Brown County. He has gone on to
- serve at the Center for Rural Engagement on our Faculty Advisory Council alongside Alon Barker. So we
- actually have two members of our Faculty Advisory Council here today.
- He is also part of our ministry in rural areas and small towns initiative where he's developing a trauma
- informed care training for clergy and lay leaders in rural congregations across the US. And I have really
- appreciated the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Kiesler, get to know him and watch him help students
- connect with these rural opportunities. So please join me in welcoming Dr. Kiesler to talk with us today
- about trauma informed care.
- you advance the slides? Or is there something I need to do? Okay. Good afternoon, folks. Normally I
- lecture for upwards of three hours. So I'm assuming you're all here for that. It's good to be here with
- you. This is only my second Rotary meeting in my lifetime, and I certainly
- appreciate the work that all of you do and what you stand for. As a social worker, by training
- and profession, we share a lot of the same values. Carol Ann, I think, was the person that spoke about
- the summer reflection. Where are you, please? Thank you. I need to see a face and a name to get the
- rest of what I was going to say. Thank you so much for your story.
- And I recognize the challenges of placing a child in a group home. For more than a decade, I worked
- with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families directly in various
- positions. And that support is very much needed. And we also need to improve the care that folks get,
- and we need to recognize them as members of our community as well. So thank you. So trauma-informed
- care, what is it about? Where does it come from?
- I want to begin with an understanding of trauma. I think we've become very loosey-goosey with the term
- trauma. I know I've said this before, if you've ever heard me talk, but my students will tell me that
- sometimes they find migrating as traumatic. Now, you don't like migrating, you might be stressed out,
- but it's not traumatic. We use that word
- so commonly that it's lost some of its power. If you think of a Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic
- stress disorder, then you think trauma. And I think times have changed, and our understanding has changed
- a little bit, but sometimes I think we need to get back to the roots. Because trauma is not something
- that we need to take lightly, it's not just everyday stress. Because if it's everyday stress, then what
- is stress?
- And so I begin here with a definition, so we're all on the same page about what we're talking about.
- SAMHSA at our federal level, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, agreed that we needed
- to come up with a common definition of what trauma is. And so they have the three E's. The event, the
- experience, and the effects. Good thing I've not done this before. So the event, something has to happen.
- A car crash. A plane crash. I hate to say that. Sorry, Kyla. But it was on my mind. You know, murder.
- Poverty. Neglect. Ongoing conditions even. So something has to happen. We oftentimes think of trauma
- as the event. It's not. The event is just the event.
- The next critical piece is the experience. How does the person assign meeting to that event? How many
- of you have been in a car accident? Many of us, many of us. And we don't necessarily see it as traumatic
- life threatening, but for some of us it is, it is. So it's how we assign meaning to that event, how
- we experience that event. And there's so much that goes into how we experience it.
- What are our friends and our social connections? Friends that last 50 and 60 years, totaling over a
- thousand years. That can bolster our resilience and our ability to bounce back from traumatic experiences.
- But imagine that you're isolated. Imagine that you don't have access to mental health resources or to
- basic needs. These can really influence how you see or experience an event and how you experience it
- ultimately predicts or influences the effects of that event or those circumstances on your life. Sometimes
- these effects can be immediate. Sometimes they can be delayed. Sometimes you can get over them pretty
- quickly, and sometimes they're lifelong. The only way to truly understand if something is trauma or
- traumatic to a person is to ask them. We cannot assign that meaning for a person
- We cannot walk or replace or be there in their shoes, but we can ask them. They're the best person to
- give us that information. But I wouldn't also advise that you go around asking people if they've been
- traumatized. So what is trauma-informed care? Here again, we have four Rs. So we had the three Es for
- trauma. We have the four Rs for trauma-informed care.
- It's about realizing the widespread impact of trauma and understand that there's multiple pathways for
- healing and recovery. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities, three, four, ten times
- more likely to experience trauma, depends on the study. Veterans, military-connected populations, twice
- as likely as the general population.
- many of us will experience potentially traumatic events in our lifetime. Okay. So we have to understand
- that it is very common. It was once thought that it was outside the norm. It was until the nineties
- that we realized how common actually adversity and potentially traumatic events are in people's lives.
- Okay. We need to recognize the signs and symptoms. So things like hypervigilance, nightmares, night terrors,
- Changes in mood, negative changes that is, negative changes in cognitions or thinking processes, avoiding
- places and things that remind you of that event. But there's also others. Inability to sit still, inability
- to self-regulate, inability to learn and pay attention in the classroom, inability to do well on a job
- interview,
- All of these things we're finding are actually linked to trauma. Not always, not always, it's not a
- given, but in many cases, it has been linked, okay? So we need to realize that trauma's pretty widespread.
- We need to recognize the signs and symptoms, and we need to respond. We need to respond by integrating
- what we know about trauma and the principles of trauma-informed care that I'll talk about here shortly
- into our policies, procedures, and practices.
- So right there, you should have some idea of what I'll be talking about next regarding organizational
- wide approaches or systems approaches to responding to folks who may or may not have experienced trauma
- because we're talking about policies, procedures, practices, how we train our staff even, and we need
- to resist causing further harm. There are things that we can do the way we approach people, the things
- that we say,
- how we respond that can actually cause more harm. That can trigger them, can re-traumatize them. I'm
- not talking about we won't need to walk around and handle everybody with kid gloves. That's not reality.
- But we do need to understand the impact of trauma. We need to be kind, and there's other things that
- we can do as well.
- So realize that trauma is common, recognize the signs and symptoms, respond with integrating this knowledge
- into what we do and how we interact with folks, and resisting causing further harm. But where did this
- come from? There's two places that I'd like to talk about here briefly. One is psychiatric and patient
- facilities. Sandra Bloom is a psychiatrist, and she realized patients were not getting better. They
- were getting treatment.
- But they're not getting better. Why? Why? Because they were using restrictive practices. Their staff
- were about power and control. They weren't listening to clients. Clients had no voice. And they also
- were not addressing or responding to the trauma that was underlying some of the mental health issues
- that were—folks were experiencing. The other part—
- was from an obesity clinic in California where doctors were recognizing that patients were losing weight,
- so the treatment was effective, but they weren't staying in the treatment program. They were dropping
- out. Well, they began to question, was eating a way of coping with underlying stress? So in 1998, the
- study was published by Felity and ANDA around adverse childhood experiences. How many of you have heard of that?
- Yeah, adverse childhood experiences are 10 types of adversity—that could be a whole presentation in
- and of itself, but I'll refrain from that now—that are categorized as abuse and neglect and household
- dysfunction. What they know at the population level is that they are pretty good predictors of poor
- outcomes later in life. That's why early intervention is critical.
- But since 1998, there has been a influx of studies and scholarship around adversity, trauma, trauma-informed
- care, and how do we respond? So they notice these things in inpatient units. They notice these things
- in a clinic. Where else do such trends occur? Lots of places, schools.
- We've recognized a lot about schools and the environment and teaching kids to identify their emotions,
- helping them to cope. You may not be for social emotional curriculums, but I assure you that there's
- a reason for them and it's backed by science because kids aren't learning this stuff elsewhere. So sometimes
- we have to teach them in the classroom. So trauma informed care is a system wide approach.
- In the upper corner, you'll see a picture of two people one-on-one. I'm not talking about trauma-specific
- treatment like directly addressing somebody's trauma. I'm talking about, at the organizational level,
- the environment, the culture and climate of workplaces, how we train staff, how we support clients,
- how we support each other. This is the one thing that's unique about trauma-informed care.
- is it's a philosophy for system-wide way of doing things. It's not just about how our clients or our
- customers are doing, it's how our staff are doing. There's five basic principles. Six in this one, I
- used a different. There's basically five, but depends on the model you use. So first thing is safety.
- We have to make sure that our environments are safe, not only physically safe, but psychologically safe.
- Do people feel OK sharing their thoughts and feelings and perspectives? Or do they fear retribution
- or harm or being belittled? OK. Trustworthiness and transparency. We have to build trust. We have to
- follow through with what we say we're going to do. Collaboration and mutuality. Sharing power. Empowerment,
- voice and choice. Giving people a sense of agency, allowing them to have a voice in their treatment,
- in their work environment.
- and recognizing cultural, historical, and gender issues. From a social work perspective, I call that
- cultural humility. I only know my life experience. I only know my family's culture. I don't know yours.
- So I need to take a step back and ask you about yours. It's not OK for me to assume what your
- life experiences have been, or what's important to you, or what's culturally valued. OK? If you think
- about these things, you're probably like, John, OK, that's great.
- That's pretty basic. Yes, we should be trustworthy. Yes, we should follow through with what we say.
- We should provide collaboration. Yes, we should engage people that have lived through what we're talking
- about. But it's all of these things combined. And it's with the purpose of recognizing that folks may
- have experienced trauma that can be lifelong and enduring. The other thing is, is all of these things,
- or most of them, are generally compromised in a traumatic experience. Think about combat. You're probably
- not feeling very safe. Think about sexual assault. You're not feeling safe. You don't know who to trust.
- You certainly were not a collaborator in the matter. Your power was taken away from you. Think about
- child abuse.
- Children don't feel safe. They don't have a say in the matter. They're disempowered. So that's where
- all of this is coming from. It's about restoring what has been jeopardized by the traumatic experiences.
- It works. It works, I can tell you. When you use
- or adopt practices that align with trauma-informed care. We see a reduced use of restraints and restrictive
- interventions. We see a reduced dropout rate, so clients stay in treatment longer. Employees are happier.
- There's increased satisfaction. There's decreased dropout, or burnout rather, decreased secondary traumatic
- stress. We see increased organizational commitment.
- People wanna stay with their employers longer, okay? The fundamental mechanism for trauma-informed care
- is you and me. Relationships. I wanna come back to Carol Anne, right? Your presentation was perfect
- timing. Because you talked about the relationships, the friendships, and you talked about how they endured for
- many years, decades. In this day and age, a lot of people are struggling with isolation and loneliness
- despite the fact that we have social media. But what did you get back to? Your college campus interacting
- with people. One evidence-based curriculum around trauma-informed care has this phrase of risking connection.
- And that's really what this is about is we need to risk connection.
- If I walk up to somebody like Kyla, I'm not guaranteed that she's gonna like me. I'm not guaranteed
- that she's gonna be receptive to what I have to say. I could be rejected. But if I fear that rejection
- and I don't reach out, then I miss the opportunity for collaboration, a friendship, a relationship,
- somebody I can trust, somebody I can confide in. Simultaneously though, if Kyla reaches out to me, she's
- taking a risk.
- Because I could say, Kyle, no, thank you. Risking connection. In human services and organizations, how
- likely are we to connect with people? In our communities, how likely are we to step out of our comfort
- zone and reach out to somebody and connect with them to recognize their humanity? That's a fundamental
- part of trauma-informed care. You become that vehicle for healing.
- So much can happen between us as human beings based on how I respond to you. If you're interested in
- learning more, IU has this handy-dandy online platform called Expand, and you can take many courses
- for free, not all of them, this one is free, and provides you with more information around trauma-informed
- care. For our base course,
- as well as submodules around working with children and youth, working with folks with intellectual and
- developmental disabilities, working with veterans. We did a collaboration between the Center for Rural
- Engagement here and Goodwill International Industries to do a training supporting justice-involved folks
- reentering the workforce, so folks that have a criminal history getting back into the workforce because
- they realized that they were not being successful and in large part because of their own trauma histories
- were influencing that.
- And the latest is we will be working with Alasi down in Dubois County, developing a training on how
- to support our Latino immigrants because there are a lot of issues there, especially with their journey
- over and everything that's happening now across our nation around immigration. So how was that? I don't
- know if I was 20 minutes or less, but I felt like it.
- depression could that be a result from trauma yes yes I could share personally as well as professionally
- not always I mean there are chemical imbalances as well there's other reasons but yes trauma can lead
- to depression as well you are Kayla mentioned earlier that you'll be working with clergy
- and which is interesting and that's great. But sometimes the church in certain denominations can actually
- cause trauma. Oh, yes. Depending on what your sexual orientation is or your marital status or the list
- goes on. So I'm wondering in addition to helping them understand some of these tools to deal with trauma,
- do you also have a moment where perhaps the church and your team
- calls for a bit of self-reflection and self-awareness. Yes, so in my prior life, before joining IU in
- 2016, I worked as a director of music and church for 22 years. So I'm very familiar with the context
- and everything that goes on. And yes, so we're not only talking about trauma-informed care with them,
- but we're also giving them tools from evidence-based interventions, like solution-focused therapy, acceptance
- and commitment therapy,
- et cetera, but yes, we also do encourage them to pause and reflect. I'm not a miracle worker. I'm grateful
- for the collaboration with CRE. I'm grateful for the funding from Lilly, and this is just, we're gonna
- see what we can do, but we're building it in such a way that we can add more to it. Same thing like
- with the way we structured the trauma-informed care training. We're building this in such a way that
- we can add and augment. We're gonna ask faith leaders for their feedback, but yes, that is a critical part.
- Definitely. Thank you. I'm interested in the role of school teachers, especially with these adverse
- childhood effects, because they're the ones most likely to see them. And I want to know whether you
- provide any sort of training or what an awful lot is expected of our school teachers. And I want to
- get your take on that. Thank you.
- Yes, thank you. Excellent point. Yes, I do do trainings and I'm happy to assist however I can. There
- are other trainings out there as well. There's various curriculum around this. Teachers have a hard
- job. Even at the university level, I've had two students with significant trauma histories. One died
- by suicide and then the other one attempted suicide.
- Yeah, I had to pause there because I don't know where my mouth was going to go. But yes, we also need
- to support our teachers, not only giving them the education and the training and the tools to support
- the students, but we also have to support our educators from a higher up perspective because they are
- taking all of this in on a daily or regular basis. Can you talk about in the situation of a natural
- disaster where people are traumatized, just the role
- of having people to listen and so as the traumatized people can just tell their stories over and over
- and over again. Okay, so if you always want to learn more about trauma, I'm happy to come back or do
- one-on-one or something else because what you're doing is getting a little bit deeper. So what we know
- is that trauma between two people is far worse than a natural disaster for a number of reasons. In part
- because with natural disasters,
- there's an influx of resources and support and people to connect with. That immediate response actually
- alleviates and helps to soften the blow, if you will. I would not encourage people to talk over and
- over again about their experience unless you're trained, a trained listener, because it could actually
- get worse. But yes, being able to share your story and your experience in a safe environment and with
- somebody that's gonna be supportive and well-trained is part of the healing process, definitely.
- Hello. I work with students. I work at IU. I work with college freshmen in a residential setting and
- I teach a course for them as well. We do a lot to build community and to be as supportive and kind and
- respectful as possible. I can cultivate that in my classroom, but what I find sometimes is they go back
- to the dorm and sometimes those interactions are maybe
- not as positive and sometimes I've worked with students who have had trauma and it's been triggered
- for, I don't know if that's the word that you would use. So I guess my question is someone who works
- with students or working with people and wants to take that approach but sees it not always happening
- with others. How do you recommend handling that or supporting students who had an experience that maybe
- brings up that trauma and addressing it with both the person who was
- perhaps retraumatize in the person who maybe wasn't fully aware of what was going on, if giving the
- most charitable interpretation. Yeah. This happens not only at the college level, but organizations.
- I mean, even as a faculty member, I have had some issues and I've asked higher up for support. How they
- respond can make it actually worse in some cases. I would say be very careful with how you respond or
- whoever else is in that situation. Grounding and stabilizing that person depending on how activated
- they are. I mean, if you see that they're visibly upset, being present with them, if that's calming
- to them, talking to them, moving them to a different environment to just breathe, sit and relax. I mean,
- there's other things that I'm happy to share with you. For the peer, I think that there needs to be
- some accountability. They may or may not have known
- but they may have done things intentionally as well. But I can tell you, even as a professional, we
- can only do the best we can do. And sometimes our humanity takes over. Sometimes we lose our control.
- We lose our cool. We say things that are hurtful. The best thing you can do is go back and repair that
- relationship. Nobody's expecting perfection. Not one of us here is God. Maybe, I don't know. But yeah.
- I think accountability, retraining, but also not chastising that person, because they may not have known.
- And again, you are in that position sort of triangulating with the person that was re-traumatized and
- the perpetrator, and you can be that point of connection for both of them and a point of healing for
- both of them. So you have to be mindful about how you approach them. But yes, I do think, you know,
- helping that person come, but also holding the other person accountable and saying,
- How could you do that differently? Do we have any questions online? So I'll do one. So in my role in
- staffing the Human Rights Commission at the city, I frequently have to do interviews and take interviews
- with people in the community who feel like they have been discriminated against.
- And a large portion of the time there are people clearly who have suffered a lot of trauma. Like what
- are you or we doing in that world of trying to get those people trauma? I mean, when we try to get them
- to any other kind of help, we're pretty stymied because they're not interested in it. And yet you can
- tell they really, really need it. Can you talk about that at all about what you do in that world?
- Yes. All you can do is offer. You can't force. Um, and there is, I'm going to go a little bit too deep
- here, but it's relevant. Jeff Young, uh, talks about, uh, the 10 life traps and sometimes people get
- stuck in the victim mentality and that's all they see. Again, it's based on life experiences, but that's
- not someplace where we should be staying. However, you can't force people to change.
- How many of you have tried to change somebody? How many of you have been successful? So there's some
- tools around motivational interviewing, I think, that can help get people more motivated, more inclined
- to seek the help, to accept the help that you might be offering. So there's strategies and ways to talk
- with them. But other than that,
- You can do the best you can, offer support, follow through with what you're saying, but it's ultimately
- the person's choice. And I'm also not talking about trauma-specific treatment because that requires
- usually a graduate degree, credentialing, and specialized training. Trauma-informed care is something
- everybody can do.
- I want to go back to where you started, where you're talking about stressed versus traumatized and your
- people interpreting stress as trauma. As a society, how do we create individuals or nurture individuals
- to be kind and sensitive, yet also resilient? And it just seems like we've lost some of our resilience.
- Yes. And how do we do both?
- Yeah, that's a good question. I do believe that, and I've seen the change in the classroom over the
- 10 years of being here, I do see a shift in resilience with students. And that's a good question. I
- think some of it happens very early on. I think some of these interventions around social emotional
- wellness can really be helpful to help people identify their emotions, to cope with their emotions,
- to build that resilience.
- I think that this idea that everybody's a winner? No. I mean, you know, everybody should get an award,
- everybody should get a trophy. It doesn't work. That's not reality, folks. But what that has done is
- I think has diminished people's resilience to cope with, OK, I need to try harder next time.
- I can do better, or I will do better, or I'll practice more. This sense of it has, I think, in some ways
- This is not based on science. This is my opinion now. I think it has decreased resilience in people's
- ability to cope with stress. I also think that how people manage that has come out oftentimes in social
- media rather than actual person-to-person resolution. We don't interact with people very well. We don't
- play on playgrounds anymore. We don't run down to the milk machine at the end of the street for our
- older senior citizen neighbor.
- and I'd learned that not everybody had milk machines on their street. I did. It's 50 cents for a quart
- of milk. So I think we need to get back to people skills. I think we need to, we've lost some of that,
- quite frankly. And we need to, some of the basic lessons in life. I don't have the solution. Again,
- I don't have the science behind that part, but I do think that giving people feedback
- Criticism isn't always bad. It can help you to learn and grow, but it depends on how you respond to
- it and whether or not you're given it. So couldn't agree with you more on the trophies. Feedback's a
- gift. I'm very gifted, hence the gray hair. But one of the things I just
- I've been doing CASA work since moving back here, so about seven years, and the ACEs scores is dead
- on. Anyone in this room—you know, there's still about 130 kids out there that don't have CASAs helping
- them as they navigate through everything you just talked about, and that's Monroe County only. You can
- make a difference by helping those children.
- by modeling and working with them. So while I'm not necessarily asking a question, I would just put
- that out there, since we are about service, about self, that that's some way you can impact a child
- very positively, albeit for a brief time. So. Yes, definitely. Thank you.
- I have a statement and I have a question. First of all, I am very stressed and traumatized. And one
- of the ways that helped me and has helped me is I do a kickboxing class through Revelation Wellness.
- And it's also with prayer and scripture. And there's a group of ladies and it really like helps me.
- But is there any other resource or besides exercising or things like that that will help in instances
- besides medication?
- Yes, yes, that's an excellent question. Okay, so I could actually refer you to somebody if you wanted,
- talk to you afterwards, my own therapist. So yes, I am a social worker and yes, I've gone to therapy
- and need to tune up from time to time. Nothing wrong with that. No shame in the game. That's also part
- of the process. We need to talk about mental health. We need to talk about mental illness. We need to
- talk about these things. We need to stop stigmatizing them because there are people in our midst that
- are experiencing what we're talking about.
- So yes, physical activity, anything, is great. Doing activity with other people, even better. Adding
- scripture and prayer, if that's for you, it's not for everybody, maybe it's mindfulness. Yes, all of
- that together sounds like a great combination. Medications do help, whether that's with the depressive
- experiences or the anxiousness or the intrusive thoughts, the sleepless nights, medications can help.
- I would never say just rely on medication. I would say that needs to be paired with some mental health
- intervention. There are specific—trauma-specific interventions that can be done. EMDR, eye movement
- desensitization reprocessing, is well established, well researched, and is even effective for people
- that are non-speaking. OK?
- You don't have to go through and tell your whole life story. It's pretty focused. It's pretty effective.
- There's trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. There is exposure therapy. There's CPT. There's
- progressive counting. There are a number of evidence-based practices. Not every mental health professional
- is trained in all of them. Some of them aren't trained in any of them. But if you want to connect afterwards,
- I'd be happy to.
- One more question? No? Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Thanks. We have about three minutes
- left if there's any happy dollars for Teachers Warehouse out there. Is anyone happy in here after discussing
- trauma? Lynn's always happy about the...
- I should give you $17. Last night, the, oh no, I'll give you nine. Last night, the Cubs scored nine
- home runs. Yes. Three of them from Bregman. Yes. We scored 17 runs, beat our nemesis, the Milwaukee
- Brewers, who lead the division 17 to three. First game of a four game series. I'm hopeful.
- Ironically, Phil Amerson was at that game. I saw a post from his daughter on it. So a lot of Cubby fans.
- Steve? So to build upon Carol Anne's reflection, later next week, I'm going to head east, join a group
- of friends whom I've known since kindergarten. We're going to bicycle 200 miles and then go to our 50th
- high school reunion. Oh, that's cool. I'm pretty happy.
- I'd like to give 20 happy dollars to say thank you to all these wonderful Rotarians. So many of you
- I've known for a long time now and love you all. Thank you. I have a happy dollar because I'm going
- to Italy in Thursday. So it's my first international trip. Oh, awesome.
- I'm actually going to give a dollar because I told Emily she needed to do a happy dollar, so. And do
- we have any online? Yes, we do. We have myself. I'm going to give 18 happy dollars. We lost you. Yeah,
- the host muted me and I'm a host. That's funny. 18 happy dollars for the Wonder Lab Gala. We only have
- 19 seats available. Alright.
- And last one. So on the theme of high school reunions, I'll go to my 55th on Saturday. Wow. All right.
- So we have lots of happy people. So John, thank you for your presentation. And in honor of your topic,
- we will donate $100 for the quarter to C-Jam for their efforts. So thank you. I'd like to thank all
- of our volunteers today, because without you, we couldn't do the program. Greeting was Dr. Winston,
- Katie for guest introductions,
- Kyla for a great speaker and introduction. And then Leslie, as always, for Zoom between you and Joy.
- Thank you for all that you do. Carol Ann, a perfect reflection. Sarah Laughlin, so good to have you
- back and now doing reporting. God bless you. Michael Shermus doing the camera and mic, as always.
- And Alon, I think you did the photography.
- And then Jill, as always, handling the desk, and Tyler, all our audio. And we will have the screen jumping
- fixed next week. We just want to keep you guys on your toes. Our next meeting will be here in the Georgian
- room on the 8th. Michael Arnold will be our guest discussing public media. That should be interesting.
- So please join us if you can. And with that, if you could, Tyler, put the screen up and stand for the
- four-way test. Of the things we think, say, or do,
- First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better
- friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?