This guide provides resources and research related to the issues discussed at Trinity Washington University's Social Justice Forum, hosted by the School of Nursing and Health Professions' Counseling programs, whose theme for 2024 was Truth, Equity and Healing: Developing a Trauma Responsive Platform to Build Community Resilience, with a concentration on story telling and changing narratives. Use the menu on the side of the page to navigate through different topics.
The topics covered in this guide cover a range of themes affecting American society: Adverse Childhood Experiences, trauma, systemic racism and violence, White supremacy, anti-racism, toxic stress, burn-out, loss, and grief- but also resilience and healing. These issues are systemic in nature, and require systemic solutions. To that end, the research contained in this guide also provide inspiring recommendations for policy and interventions at all levels to lessen the deleterious impact these issues have had on vulnerable groups in our country- most importantly, children, especially children of color.
One of these children, Relisha Rudd, inspired Trinity's Counseling program's research involving families with children experiencing homelessness in the District. In March of 2014, Relisha, an 8 year-old African American girl from DC, was abducted from a shelter providing housing to families experiencing homelessness. The news of Relisha's life and subsequent disappearance (which remains unsolved, to this day) brought into sharp relief the commonplace issues which came together to create the conditions that led to Relisha's tragedy: poverty, abuse, gendered violence, trauma, systemic racism, and many more. The research included in this guide explores these issues and serves as guideposts as we craft a world where the lives of children like Relisha are valued beyond measure.
Photo of Relisha Rudd, playing with bendable, colored soft craft wire.
You can learn more about Trinity's Initiative on Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma by visiting our website: https://discover.trinitydc.edu/aces-research/.
Photo of Trinity Washington University Counseling Faculty in Trinity Library's Family Library