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?