What's New: Resiliency Training Services

When people are in crisis, someone must answer the call. But what happens when those who do the challenging work of responding to those in crisis and helping those who’ve experienced trauma begin to burn out and feel on the verge of crisis themselves? FrontLine Service now offers Resiliency Trainings for those in the emergency response and helping professions, led by the combined expertise of Kim Kiley, and FrontLine collaborator, Guy-Vincent. Working with FrontLine since 2008, Kim’s interest in resiliency grew out of her work in the Trauma Department and the impacts she noticed in herself from work-related stress and trauma exposure. Guy is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist-educator, beginning his collaboration with FrontLine in 2019, and helps others develop resiliency skills through artistic means.

The Resiliency Training program offers several different course options, including: First Responder Wellness Trainings, Social Service Agency Trainings, and Resiliency Groups and Retreats. The trainings cover a wide range of needs and can be customized to the agency’s needs upon an initial consultation where those needs are assessed. Some take place over the course of an afternoon like First Responder Trauma Exposure Stress and Resiliency Training with Art, while others are more in-depth and can be offered as a series like Applying Trauma-Informed Care to Your Organization for Social Service agencies. Trainings are flexible and can be offered in-person or virtually.

First Responder Wellness Trainings are designed to help professionals in Law Enforcement, Firefighting, EMS, and other fields deal with primary and secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, moral distress, and the mental, emotional, and physical strain they face in their lines of work. There are also classes for spouses, peers, and family members of first responders that cover trauma-informed care and resiliency strategies for the unique types of stress and burnout often experienced by the loved ones of law enforcement and other first responders.

Social Service Agency Trainings address the particular varieties of stress and burnout experienced by those in the helping professions. Courses like Advanced Resiliency Skills explore many of the same topics as First Responder Wellness Trainings, but through the lens of social work. The courses incorporate SAMHSA’s Trauma Informed Care Framework and the Five Core Elements of Resiliency, as defined by the Office for Victims of Crime, and focus on mindfulness, how to check in with one’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being throughout the day, and strengthening skills for maintaining wellness and resiliency.

Resiliency Groups and Retreats can occur on an ongoing basis so that professionals in fields with high degrees of empathetic strain and burnout can have regular refreshers and opportunities for progressively deepening their coping skills and strategies.

We are thrilled to be offering these skillfully crafted, trauma-informed courses that help those in our community who have some of the most difficult jobs to maintain optimal wellness so that they can continue the challenging work of showing up for others in crisis.

Read more about the Resiliency Training Program and its educators here:

FrontLine staff participating in a staff resiliency meeting with art therapy activities.

“Trauma-Informed Care is a strengths-based framework that is grounded in an understanding of and a responsiveness to the impact of trauma, that emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors, and creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment”

- Hopper, Bassuk, & Olivet, 2010