This presentation describes trauma's impact on communities and compelling reasons a community, and its prevention workforce, needs to become trauma informed and resilient focused. In sharing success stories from Northeast Tennessee in work she helped to pioneer, Becky also discussed practical steps communities can take to reduce the effects of toxic stress and childhood adversity and promote resilience.
Becky Haas is an international advocate and trainer on using a trauma informed approach, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) study. She is a pioneer in creating trauma informed communities. The work she led while working for the Johnson City Police Department in Northeast Tennessee was recognized by SAMHSA in 2018 as a model for other cities to follow. In 2019 she co-authored the "Building a Trauma Informed System of Care" toolkit for the TN Department of Children's services detailing a blueprint for creating community resilience. This toolkit has been recommended as a “practical tool” in John's Hopkins, Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action. Becky is the author of several sector specific professional development trainings with two receiving statewide accreditation in Tennessee as evidence-based training. Among the diverse sectors of professionals, she has trained, she is uniquely distinguished for her work training police officers and others in the justice system to understand trauma. In March of 2022, she was honored to receive the Friends of Children award from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth for her work as a local, state, and national leader in implementation and support of trauma informed services and communities. Becky has a deep understanding of the importance for every professional sector to have intimate knowledge of healthy early childhood development and the potential for early adversity to disrupt that healthy development. She is a founding member of the East Tennessee State University Ballad Health Strong Brain Institute and serves as a member of the CTIPP National Trauma Campaign strategy team and as a Strategic Partner for the Pathways to Resilience Program.
