By the Coconino Coalition for Children & Youth
COCONINO COUNTY — From dealing with day-to-day tasks and public service requirements, to assessing and meeting community needs such as building permits, parks and recreation programs, library services, to addressing housing, fire and police response, to responding to and working to prevent emergency including wildfires and floods, City of Flagstaff employees often face a wide range of community stressors and traumatic events each day.
Each individual has their own stress and trauma that they may be dealing with on top of the complex work they are tasked with. To support the City of Flagstaff employees, CCC&Y Executive Director Virginia Watahomigie recently presented “Trauma in the Workplace” as a live workshop.
“The research is clear that what happens to us impacts our behavior and interactions with others. When we are in a trauma-responsive environment we not only understand this, we make simple changes that can improve outcomes and relationships as opposed to creating further stress or trauma,” Watahomigie said. “Organizations and systems who are on the frontlines of our community’s deepest needs are supported when they understand the behaviors they and others are experiencing.”
The training is part of the Coalition’s Reimagine Community — Trauma-Informed System Change grant focusing on developing a mental model change ensuring trauma-informed and resilience information is understood at the City of Flagstaff and Coconino County levels and enacted as policy change.
The goal of the project is to create awareness of the impacts of trauma and stress on individuals, to recognize how this is impacting team members, the wider community and the system as a whole, and to create a trauma responsive environment that supports staff members, teams and the community.
The Coalition was one of four organizations in Arizona to be selected in 2023 for the Vitalyst Health Foundation’s System Change Grant, which is supporting the Reimagine Community program.
The training on March 26 was a part of the multi-year Reimagine Community project that has included discussions with administrative leaders, surveys, development of training materials (including those added to both organizations’ HR training systems), and a series of listening sessions with City staff. Further, the City and county employees also had the chance to take part in a System Change Symposium in October 2024.
We look forward to continuing to hear directly from staff members, provide additional training and support where requested and we are about to begin a process of work between City staff members and globally renowned consultants to start moving the awareness raised thus far toward embedded mental mode change and assessment of policy alignment.
