Poverty & Trauma Learning Journey

Becoming trauma- and/or poverty-competent is a journey. Like all journeys it begins with taking the first step, in this case making a commitment to change. It will take time to build your capacity and skills.

In the meantime, you can start building resilience today by:

  • Being mindful and aware of your facial expressions, body language and affect.

  • Being compassionate, attempting to make a connection and disarm fear.

  • Giving voice to needs and concerns in a meaningful way so that you can help develop self-efficacy and the ability to self-regulate.

Finally, get curious! Build your understanding, capacity and skill set to address poverty/trauma and the needs of traumatized children, parents, and families. Our 101 workshops are designed to give you a base understanding of our shared language. This will support productive conversations within our collaboratives and the community at large. For deep understanding, we provide additional resources and connection to training opportunities.

Before you begin – check your knowledge with our Knowledge Assessments. The assessments test your understanding of the content in our 101 workshops and understanding of our common language. Feedback on incorrect answers identifies the sections you should focus on.

Joint learning – organizations, churches, departments can request our Poverty 101 and/or Trauma 101 workshops. Click here to connect with the Georgia Family Connection in your county.

Guide to Self Directed Learning Journey

We understand that some like to take their learning journey alone. For you, we have both an online and print self-directed study for each of the 101 Workshops - Poverty & Trauma and our Compassion Fatigue Workshop.

What to do...

  • Print - download and print the Poverty 101, Trauma 101 (Parents/Caregivers or Professionals), or Compassion Fatigue Study Guide. Learners can read, process, and consider how these topics impact the implementation of their job duties and work with children and families on their own. Study Guides include planning templates for incorporating newly learned best practices.


  • Slideshow– Advance each slide as you work through the content on the corresponding pages for the study guide. Once complete, check your understanding with our content assessment. The content below the slideshow reinforces information in the study guide and resource pages give guidance on how to connect with additional resources, books, and trainings.