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This month we’re back to our series on trauma-informed communication. I sat down with our colleagues, Keighty Ward (they/them) and Bria Dolnick (she/her), to talk about what Peer Support looks like in Literacy Works’ Community Literacy program.
Our conversation covered many ideas related to trauma-informed communication, like safety, power and choice, and community building.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
For people who aren't as familiar with Community Literacy, can you tell us a bit about what you do?
Keighty
Community Literacy was the original program of Literacy Works in 1995. We provide holistic support for adult literacy programs throughout Illinois. Which means we help the tutors, we help the teachers, we help the program managers and the administration, whatever it takes to make a successful and effective program.
We do that in a variety of ways, including Tutor Essentials [training] for brand new tutors, and continuing education for not so brand-new tutors and other staff.
What does peer support mean to you in the context of trauma-informed communication?
Bria
I think part of trauma-informed communication is giving people a sense of power and acknowledging that they have something to share. This is something that Literacy Works does through the support groups, and also by asking practitioners to do trainings for us.
Keighty
I would add that I think trauma-informed care is about power, connection and safety.
Part of it is reminding people how much power they already have and how much they already know. When we do those calls for presenters, sometimes we don't get any responses and nobody thinks of themselves as a presenter until we're like, “you're already sharing your information. Let's just give you a platform!”
And that's when connection and safety come in. We can coach them and say you're supposed to be here.
I don't know if I've articulated it as trauma-informed care before, but it is.
Bria
I'm really proud to say that two of the adult ed workers that have led a training with us have gone on to do that same training at a conference.
You’ve mentioned support groups. Can you talk a bit about those?
Keighty
We meet quarterly with all the coordinators or administration staff at our member organizations. It started as a place to vent, but now it's really become a space where they support each other.
Someone says, “I don't know how to do this grant. Can anybody help me?” I see our role as pushing it back towards the group. They are the experts because they’re the ones doing the grant.
I think that makes us stronger because we don't have to know the right answer.
What other peer support work would you like to highlight?
Bria
Last fall we had an event about Grief and Adult Education, where people could talk about the grief they have related to this field.
The people who came were so excited that something like this existed and commented that they needed it. They really felt seen to have an opportunity to be in community with peers who understood the systemic frustrations of this work and could hold grief in a way that was healing so that they could move forward.
Another piece of your work is telling the stories of adult educators, to help others understand the field and advocate for changes. Can you tell us about Adult Ed WAVE?
Bria
One of the first projects [WAVE] did was writing a report, Where are the teachers? Adult Education Workers Explain the “Teacher Shortage”, to tell the story of low retention for teachers through the life experience of teachers.
Rather than just looking at the numbers of wages and low retention rates, we asked teachers about being a teacher and having to leave. Those are really powerful stories, and they don't often get told, and certainly not as research.
Keighty
Usually, somebody writes an article about this teacher shortage and says, well, there's a lot of positions open, so there must be a shortage, but that's just not the whole story. When we hear from real teachers, they're like, I love my job, I never want to quit, but I have to because I have to pay rent and have kids.
Part of what we do is get out of the way and create opportunities for people to share.
What has been the impact of having these peer support opportunities?
Keighty
I think it's changed everything about the Community Literacy program.
We used to have 26 members and now we have 63. Some of it can be chalked up to being online now, but I also think it's because we treat our members like they are partners. They share their feedback and then we make trainings directly from their feedback and they notice that.
We do exactly what they need and nothing extra and we stop programs when they don't work. We're really looking for them to tell us what they need, because we're co-learners in this.
We know that this work is not always easy. How have you navigated the challenges that come up with peer support?
Keighty
The first one I think of is you have to model how to do it first. People aren't used to feeling safe and comfortable and included. [Before Bria started], I was here by myself. It was hard to get people to talk to me. I think I could have easily said, “oh well they don't want to talk” and I could have just stayed in my own bubble and made the trainings I wanted to make.
I just kept doing it. I kept saying, I'm really asking you. It's intentional.
Bria
Keighty modeled this for me when I was a teacher. It seems like a small thing, but the fact that they shared their calendar. That’s not very common. It's really easy to make a meeting, which sometimes feels like a huge barrier to communicating.
Being easily accessible and communicative and transparent are values that people can see in practice. So, people trust us.
Sarah
I feel like what you're both speaking to is the idea of treating members as peers.
Keighty
That was a thing that people had to get used to. They expected me not to answer and didn't expect me to be as open as I was. I still get emails like, “I know that you're busy. I know you don't have time to do this.”
I'm like, “No, I really do. This is my job, and this is what I want to do. I'm here for you.”
Sarah
I appreciate what you're saying about persistence and intentionality.
It's not that people don't want to be involved. They're not used to being genuinely asked. You have to be persistent and intentional about having those conversations. And when people do ask questions, respond to them to show that you really mean it when you say you want to know what they think.
As we wrap up, are there any other things related to trauma-informed communication that you want to highlight?
Bria
Something that was new for me was giving people choices when you're asking them to do something, and not making them have to ask. It's a different way of thinking that I think can be very welcoming.
Keighty
All of these things started at the coordinator support group, building our relationships there and learning that everybody has all these strengths.
And now we're starting to see people reaching out to each other, not just relying on us for information. That's the goal because we don't want this to only be held up by Literacy Works. We want it to be happening without us, too.
The Lab Report is Clear Language Lab’s blog and includes posts on various topics related to clear, effective communication. Questions or errors you want to report? Contact Tiara Whitlock, Program Manager, at tiara@litworks.org.
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