The Development of Trauma-Informed Community Partnerships: A Mixed Method Social Network Study

ABSTRACTTrauma-informed communities establish cross-sector coalitions that advocate for the use of trauma-informed practices. Whether and how communication occurs within newly established trauma-informed communities is unclear. We collected qualitative data and social network data from six trauma-informed community partnerships that received funding to build community capacity to address trauma across a range of special populations in Los Angeles county. We identified three communication network sub-types and highlight contributions of network leadership in setting the tone for cross-partnership communication. While partnership leaders shared the goal of strengthening cross-organizational communication, social network results illustrated a need to develop strategies that target these goals.Practice PointsCommunication is needed to spread novel information about trauma-informed care and community capacity building throughout trauma-informed community-based partnerships.To sustain partnership work it is essential that members of partnering organizations communicate new information about resources and trauma-informed knowledge between themselves, rather than only communicating directly through the partnership’s leader.A “communication plan” could delineate opportunities for persons from partnering organizations to participate in communication and decision making, and help ensure that individuals with less seniority (i.e., peer supporters) remain involved in network communication.KEYWORDS: Mixed methodsOrganizational leadershipsocial network analysistrauma-informed communityDisclaimerAs a service to authors and researchers we are providing this version of an accepted manuscript (AM). Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proofs will be undertaken on this manuscript before final publication of the Version of Record (VoR). During production and pre-press, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal relate to these versions also. Data availability statementAll social network data sets and qualitative transcripts consist of or include significant amounts of identifiable information. Thus, the study team believes that publicly sharing this manuscript’s data would jeopardize participant confidentiality and supporting data sets are not available.Additional informationFundingThis project was approved by the University of California San Diego Institutional Review Board (IRB#201892X). This project was funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. The funding sources had no role in the study design, collection, and analysis of data, nor in writing of articles or decision to submit for publication.