Global Team on Trauma Sensitivity within forumZFD

The Willy Brandt Center in Jerusalem works with forumZFD on various aspects of conflict transformation, including trauma sensitivity. At the end of 2019, a Global Team within forumZFD was established, together with social psychologist Wiebke Warkentin, to better understand the role of collective trauma in our field of work.

Through monthly calls, the Global Team exchanged knowledge and experience with other forumZFD colleagues worldwide. This format of exchange aims to explore how psychological wounds in violent conflicts are passed down from generation to generation, and the effects of this trauma – both on a community and its individuals.

Furthermore, assuming that sensitivity towards individual and collective trauma is inevitable when working in conflict settings, we believe that it is crucial to make trauma sensitivity a cross-cutting issue within forumZFD and to train their staff accordingly. Therefore, the Global Team has developed a recommendation catalogue for trauma sensitivity in the Civil Peace Service (CPS), and is now conceptualizing tools and trainings intended to assist us in addressing collective trauma in our work. There will be a joint publication at the end of the year on how an organization can take its first steps to become trauma sensitive.