Trauma-informed practice addresses the impact of violence and victimization on the individual, family, and community’s life and development. It emphasizes choice, control, knowledge, survival skills, ethical integrity, and support on the person’s own terms. Trauma-informed practice is critical for supporting a systems-response to violence and trauma. It is critical for addressing ongoing violence such as unintended systemic colonization, harm, and re-traumatization that may be experienced by diverse people. The free, Family Violence Prevention – Building Trauma-Informed Communities webinar will feature Nancy MacDonald, Director of Family Service of Eastern Nova Scotia and Art Fisher, Director of family Service of Western Nova Scotia, co-founders of the Nova Scotia Trauma Informed Network. For the past decade, Nancy and Art have been pioneering the development of a collaborative, strengths-based, systems-informed, socially accountable approach to trauma-informed practice, which has been accomplished in the context of community-based family violence prevention and intervention.

The webinar aims to deepen participants’ knowledge of how historical and ongoing violence impacts people’s lives. The webinar will show how a culturally competent, trauma-informed practice can be integrated across a continuum of supports and services for diverse communities.