3 - Trauma-Sensitive Research and Evaluation (TSRE): Why and How Trauma Stories Matter

Abstract Information: This workshop will provide evaluators with an introduction to trauma and trauma-informed evaluation practices. Trauma impacts how we do our work and how well we connect with each other and the communities with which we work. We will discuss how individual and collective trauma changes how the brain functions and how the body reacts. We will learn how to identify various trauma-related behaviors and responses and how to integrate SAMHSA’s Principles of Trauma-Informed Care into our practice to avoid triggering shame or stress responses or worse, retraumatizing evaluation participants. Attendees will participate in various activities designed to help them consider how they might integrate the Principles into their own work. Additionally, we will focus on how secondary trauma impacts evaluators and what evaluators need to heal from those experiences.

Relevance Statement: Research conducted by the CDC (2021) finds that more than 60% of people living in the United States have experienced one or more adverse childhood experiences. In addition to childhood trauma, humans individually and collectively experience other chronic traumas as they progress through adulthood, including poverty, domestic abuse, racial trauma, sexual trauma, trauma from natural disasters, and secondary trauma on the job. Those living outside the US may also experience the trauma of war, refugee camps, and displacement. Evaluators and researchers are not exempt from experiencing trauma. However, neither yet acknowledge that primary and secondary trauma impacts them and how they design and conduct research and evaluation (R & E). While class, gender, and race may often separate researchers and evaluators from their participants, trauma is, or can be, the universal connector. Our shared experiences as human beings are what connect us to each other. But when researchers and evaluators are not aware of trauma and how it impacts thought patterns and behavior, they are susceptible to any or all of the following mistakes: 1) harming and re-traumatizing evaluation participants; 2) misinterpreting body language and other non-verbal signals; 3) underestimating contributions made by participants; 4) minimizing, judging, or dismissing lived experiences; and 5) experiencing secondary trauma without the support and processes needed to metabolize it. Any or all these errors affect not only the experience of all involved in R & E, but possibly the validity of the findings. Conversely, being sensitive to trauma in the course of research and evaluation can have the following benefits: 1) prevent re-traumatization; 2) increase the validity of the findings and conclusions of an evaluation or research study in the eyes of various stakeholders; 3) increase the quality and therefore validity of data collected; 4) decrease the risk of collateral damage and/or liability for evaluators and researchers; and 5) increase resilience of traumatized communities and research and evaluation stakeholders. Given the global collective trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this workshop is both timely and needed.