Engaging with Empathy: 5 Trauma-Informed Tips for Connecting with CommunitiesInsights from our work with the Sutter-Yuba iCare Program
For public sector workers transforming behavioral health systems, engaging with stakeholders currently in crisis often means stepping into sensitive spaces–whether they are currently experiencing violence, homelessness, or severe mental illness. Collecting insights about their experience requires a trauma-informed approach to ensure the well-being of the participants as collaborators in the process. It’s about building trust, fostering psychological safety, and honoring the lived experiences of those you serve, while also protecting your own energy to truly show up and be present with your stakeholders.
At Third Sector, our Behavioral Health projects often require us to engage individuals with lived experiences to understand the impact program services have on the community they serve. In 2024, we partnered with the Sutter-Yuba iCare Program to assess program effectiveness, gathering qualitative data from interviews with clients regarded as “hard-to-engage” individuals to understand the program’s impact from their perspective.
While engaging with individuals who have lived experiences is vital to our work in the public sector, many practitioners find themselves unprepared for such sensitive discussions. As the Behavioral Health Director and an expert in trauma-informed stakeholder engagement, I’ve outlined five best practices for effectively engaging communities that may be experiencing various crises.
The iCare program is a field-based program, centered on a relationship-based model that prioritizes building trust with individuals, and connecting them with resources and services that they desire and need.
5 Trauma-Informed Tips for Connecting with Communities
1. Demonstrate Care and Presence by Sharing the Floor
One of the most powerful shifts you can make is to prioritize genuine human connection. Begin interactions by acknowledging participants’ well-being. I typically start by asking how they are doing, how their day has been, and if there’s anything they’d like to share before we begin the conversation. By creating open space at the beginning, we are inviting them to shape the pace and energy of the interview. This simple act of prioritizing the person in front of you more than the agenda creates a space where they feel seen and heard from the outset.
2. Ditch the Script (When Appropriate)
Occasionally, some questions in the script may feel uncomfortable or unwise to ask, given what the individual has already shared. In those cases, opt to follow where the conversation is taking you and explore other creative ways to get at the spirit of the original questions without delving too deeply into intense terrain. Allowing for flexibility throughout the conversation and gently connecting modified follow-up questions to what they are organically sharing can create a more natural and less intimidating flow.
3. Partner with Trusted Support
Engaging with individuals currently in crisis can lead to overwhelming emotions. It’s important to partner with their support network in the stakeholder engagement process. Before engaging in sensitive discussions, ask stakeholders if they would like a support person to be present. If so, structure the interviews in a way that supports that person’s presence, whether it is their case manager, partner, or even their companion animal. For example, if the individual has a trusted relationship with the service provider who connected us with them, structure and schedule the interviews in a way that supports their lead service support person being present during the interview.
I have conducted interviews where the client became overwhelmed, and having her case manager sitting right beside her in the van was a lifesaver in more ways than one. She was able to offer live-time physical comfort, support, and encouragement. After talking with her for a bit, the client re-engaged with the interview. Partnering with trusted service leads or allowing for the presence of a personal support person can significantly enhance the stakeholder’s comfort and ability to engage safely.
4. Be Emotionally Available
When someone shares their story, especially one involving past trauma, you are on “sacred ground.” This requires more than just active listening; it demands emotional availability and a willingness to be moved by what you hear. Practice mindful listening by focusing entirely on the speaker. Resist the urge to interrupt or formulate your next question. Allow yourself to acknowledge, validate, and feel their emotions, even if you don’t fully understand their experience. Be comfortable with silence as they process. This authenticity fosters deeper connections and demonstrates that you genuinely care about them as an individual, valuing their experience.
It is a delicate balance to be visibly affected by what you hear, while ensuring that the person sharing does not feel the need to caretake for you. It can be as simple as expressing gratitude for their willingness to share their experience with you, acknowledging the depth of the hardship. If you are having a visible response to what they shared, reassure them that you are okay and that staying really present with another’s story sometimes means deeply feeling things along the way.
5. Manage Your Energy & Metabolize Traumatic Information
Engaging with trauma can take a toll on you as the research partner. It’s crucial for teams to have tools and strategies to prepare to take in traumatic information during interviews and to process and discharge their own emotional energy afterward. The energy we enter the encounter with matters. Before interviews, engage in practices to help you arrive emotionally grounded, physically settled, and spiritually centered. Implement a “buffer zone” around intense stakeholder engagement activities. This could mean scheduling no meetings immediately before/after sensitive interviews, encouraging a mandatory 15-minute walk or self-care time, or dedicating time for team debriefs with a focus on emotional processing rather than just task completion.
I do my best to conduct interviews on designated interview days where that is my only task for the day. I opt to work out before and take a solo walk right after, and I never schedule meetings directly after interviews. I prioritize time to discharge the energy and emotionally process. After being fully present with various individuals and conversations, it’s essential to metabolize them afterwards.
Trauma-informed stakeholder engagement requires a commitment to supporting the well-being of both stakeholders and staff. By fostering an environment of empathy, flexibility, and conscious self-care, public sector organizations and communities can build more responsive and equitable public systems together.
For more information about this work or to find out how Third Sector can support your stakeholder engagement efforts, contact me at jheadleyternes@thirdsectorcap.org or Michael Berton, Manager, Projects and Partnership Development at mberton@thirdsectorcap.org
