Research In Action

As a recent University of Pennsylvania Master of Public Health graduate, I completed my capstone under the wonderful mentorship of Rachel Myers, PhD, MS and Hillary Kapa, MPH in CHOP’s Center for Violence Prevention. My capstone project's goal was to engage in a community-based participatory research (CBPR) process to develop and refine an interview guide to elicit staff perspectives on trauma-informed practices (TIP). Integration of TIP into community settings can create welcoming and safe environments for staff and community members to engage and heal from past traumas. 

To address the widespread and pervasive impact of trauma within our communities, organizations and programs have been tasked with implementing trauma-informed practices. However, limited training resources exist for community-based organizations to successfully implement TIP. Further, while TIP are increasingly familiar in academic settings, they are more limitedly discussed in community-based settings. This may result in a knowledge gap of how to best deliver programs in trauma-informed and responsive ways. 

Community-based participatory research is a powerful strategy to bridge the gap between academic principles of TIP and practical guidance for community organizations seeking to provide programming in trauma-informed ways. Members of CHOP’s Center for Violence Prevention partnered with the Christian Street YMCA, located within South Philadelphia, to better understand what it means to embed trauma-informed practices into existing community-based, youth-focused programming. This work was in part funded by CHOP PolicyLab’s Community Partnerships in Research Program. 

The first step in this process was to develop, refine, and pilot test an interview guide, utilizing a CBPR approach. The purpose of the interviews was to gather staff perspectives of TIP, what practices they are already using, and the impact they see for themselves, other staff, and members.

Building a Community-Academic Research Team 

My capstone project utilized a pre-existing partnership between CHOP CVP and the Christian Street YMCA. Our community-academic research team (CART) was comprised of the Christian St. YMCA executive director, four YMCA frontline staff, two CHOP CVP academic researchers, and two research staff. The CART met regularly to develop and refine the interview guide development prior to pilot testing. 

Interview Guide Development, Refinement and Pilot Testing 

We developed the interview guide using an iterative process, taking feedback on each draft to improve the next draft. Academic team members developed the first draft of the interview guide utilizing SAMHSA’s Six Key Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach as the framework. 

The CART engaged in open discussion to refine, remove or add questioning to the interview guide. For example, in the initial development of the interview guide, the terminology of “trauma-informed approaches” was used to describe trauma informed ideals. Trauma-informed approaches is a widely accepted phrase in academia, commonly used in resources to address these ideals and principles. In open discussion with the CART team, we decided to move away from the idea of “approaches,” as several team members shared that this word could be considered hostile or suggest aggression. Instead, it was recommended to use “practices,” as team members believed this served as a better use of language to understand how front-line staff define these activities and actions in their programming and behaviors. 

Following changes, the CART pilot tested the interview guide with YMCA staff members. After reviewing answers to the interview guide, the CART met once more during my capstone project to refine questioning and determine a feasible recruitment approach for future interviews. 

Future Directions 

Future directions of this project involve conducting formal interviews using the refined interview guide with the YMCA front line staff, coding interview data, and analysis of the data to inform development of resources and support TIP at the Christian Street YMCA. 

We hope to extend this research and practical resources to support other YMCA branches in the Greater Philadelphia YMCA network. Through this research, the importance of TIPs will be made accessible to support staff in addressing and diminishing the impact of trauma within communities. 

Benefits of Utilizing a CBPR Approach 

Throughout this capstone project, I realized how important a CBPR approach can be for research. Not only does it increase the reliability and validity of the research findings, but it enhances the research by centering the experiences and perspectives of community members. YMCA staff members are experts of their practice, and my role as a researcher was to uplift their voice. Poising community members as the experts helps develop more sustainable and relevant solutions. This work can serve as a model for other research teams in the development of data collection tools using a CBPR approach. 

Additionally, I found that utilizing CBPR fostered an easier recruitment approach for pilot interview and improved communication channels for the CART. In turn, using CART meetings to develop and refine the interview guide led to improved data collection. 

Although CBPR is a cyclical process that can occur over months or years, the data produced from this research approach outweighs the time constraints. Utilizing a CBPR approach for my capstone project was a wonderful learning experience, which I will take with me through my future journey into public health research. I’m very grateful for the connections I’ve made throughout this project and I’m looking forward to hearing how the future of this research unfolds.