Trauma-informed youth ministry is necessary because the prevalence of trauma across the lifespan is high. Our trauma-informed practices should be in all of our ministries, from ministries for young children to ministries for seniors.
When we are trauma-informed, we implement the following three principles in our ministry:
- Knowledge: We implement knowledge about trauma, its effects, healing resources, and retraumatization into our ministry
- Reversal of trauma: We create environments that are the opposite of trauma by prioritizing safety, regulation, control, and positive relationships
- Resilience-building: We build the resilience (an ability that helps people to heal) of those we work with through positive relationships, recognizing strengths, and encouraging factors that build resilience.
How we apply these principles will vary depending on the population of our ministry.
In this article, we’ll talk about ways to apply these principles to youth ministry. Here, we define ministry as any ministry for those under 18 (other than religious education, which we will discuss separately in a future article.
Principle 1 for Trauma-Informed Youth Ministry: Knowledge
Knowledge About Trauma
When working with young people, it is essential to grow in knowledge of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, as this is what the population of your ministry may be experiencing.
ACEs are potentially traumatic experiences experienced before one’s 18th birthday. They include things like:
- Emotional, physical, or sexual abuse
- Physical or emotional neglect
- Witnessing violence, incarceration, drug use, or mental illness in one’s home
- Divorce or separation of parents
- Witnessing community violence
- Bullying
Unfortunately, the odds that someone in your youth ministry has experienced at least one ACE are high. Research shows that 63.9% of US adults experienced at least one ACE in their childhood, and 17.4% have experienced four or more.
Additionally, the prevalence rates of specific ACEs are the following:
- Emotional Abuse: 34%
- Physical Abuse: 23.3%
- Sexual Abuse: 12.6%
- Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence: 17.2%
- Household Substance Use: 26.5%
- Household Mental Illness: 17.3%
- Parental Separation and Divorce: 28.4%
- Incarcerated Household Member: 8.6%
ACEs can have a lot of different effects on kids, including mental health problems, ADHD, anger problems, physical health problems, obesity, behavior problems, learning difficulties, and difficulties with friendships.
Growing in this knowledge helps you know that things you may see in your ministry may result from trauma so you can respond with compassion, resources, and the love of Christ.
You can grow in this knowledge with the following resources:
- The Body Keeps the Score
- Childhood Disrupted
- The ACEs pages on our website
Healing Resources
I encourage you to take the time to do some research about healing resources specifically for kids, so if a parent asks for a referral or discloses their child’s trauma to you, you are prepared.
Here are some places to start:
- Look up some local Catholic therapists on the Catholic Therapists website and see which ones can and will work with kids.
- See what local schools offer; some may offer counselors or other support services.
- Look into local nonprofits and hospitals to see if they run groups or programs for different populations, such as grief or therapy groups.
I encourage you to reach out to the resources you find and learn more about what they do to see if they align with Catholic teaching and could be a good resource to add to your list. Reaching out to these resources can also be helpful because you can personally vouch for the resources you give to parents.
Retraumatization
Retraumatization occurs when something in a person’s environment reminds them of the trauma they have experienced, triggering a reaction as if the trauma is happening again.
Things like yelling, people being put down, loud noises, boundary violations, and a lack of control and safety can cause retraumatization.
Knowing these triggers can be helpful because you can design your ministry to avoid them.
Principle 2 for Trauma-Informed Youth Ministry: Reversal of Trauma
Safety
There are multiple ways that you can make sure that your ministry is both physically and emotionally safe, including:
- Have a consistent routine for your meetings and stick to it. Communicate early and often if it will change. When kids know what to expect, they can feel safer.
- Especially for older children, ensure that they understand what mandatory reporting laws require you to report (things that may cause harm to themselves or others), especially if you can sense a conversation veering in that direction. This communication helps kids know what they tell you that will not be kept confidential, as they may feel betrayed if they did not know this.
- Keep exits open and easily accessible.
- Lock outside doors so unauthorized people are not able to get into meetings.
- Keep noise levels down as much as possible.
- Avoid yelling.
- Find creative ways to get kids’ attention that doesn’t involve yelling (call and response, clapping, etc.).
- If kids are struggling to meet basic behavior standards, strive to find ways to help them meet these standards without yelling or losing your patience. Be creative. A kid struggling with sitting still may need to stand in the back while a speaker is there or draw or have a fidget toy.
- If you say you’ll do something, do it, as not doing so can also feel like a betrayal.
Regulation
If a child is becoming dysregulated (anxious, angry, shutting down), this may be due to trauma. Help them re-regulate through activities such as listening, reflecting back what they say, doing deep breathing with them, or playing music. If they can voice why they became dysregulated, try to implement that knowledge to avoid it in the future.
Control
Simple things like letting children choose the games they want to play, having some say in topics, giving options for activities, and, for more mature children, opportunities to help with planning and running the ministry can also help to provide a sense of control.
Principle 3 for Trauma-Informed Youth Ministry: Resilience-Building
Positive relationships with others can aid in the process of both healing and feeling safe. In youth ministry, we can foster positive relationships with trusted adults and within the community of young people.
We can foster positive relationships with positive adults by striving to show interest in the lives we serve, remembering their names and details about their lives, and recognizing their strengths and talents.
We can foster a sense of community among young people by allowing them to play games and do other fun activities, eat together, pray together, and encourage them to share their lives in structured ways.
Other Considerations for Trauma-Informed Youth Ministry
When we work with kids, we may encounter children with behavior and learning difficulties and with diagnoses such as ADHD.
There are lots of causes for these things, so just because a kid has an ADHD diagnosis does not mean they have faced trauma. However, these things can be the result of trauma.
Overall, strive to make accommodations for children with behavior and learning difficulties. Making these accommodations is an excellent practice for ensuring all can participate but is also trauma-informed by ensuring that children feel safe and welcome.
These accommodations might include ways for children to get their energy out, alternative ways to learn, working with parents on a behavior plan, and more.
Additionally, partnering with parents can be very helpful. Parents may wish to share parts of their child’s story with you. Listening and collaborating with parents can help you make sure their child benefits from the ministry and also allows you to be trauma-informed in a unique, tailored way if you know that is part of their story. They may know how their child is responding to their experience of trauma, and that knowledge can help you ensure that your ministry is serving them.
For example, I used to work with a family that occasionally served as foster parents, and they would bring their foster children to meetings. They would often pull us aside to explain the situation briefly so we had a heads up if it came up in conversations or prayer.
Finally, I encourage you to have multiple consistent volunteers for events. This is great because it allows the children to foster relationships with various safe adults. I encourage you in your training to teach them about trauma-informed principles so everyone is on the same page.
Conclusion
Trauma-informed principles in youth ministry can help your ministry to be a place of safety and healing for the many children who face traumatic experiences. Simple things like growing in knowledge, fostering safety, and promoting positive relationships can make a world of difference in the lives of young people.
For a free workbook to help you apply these principles to your ministry, subscribe to our email list below.
What is one way that you will implement trauma-informed principles in your ministry? If you know anyone working in youth ministry, please share this article with them!