An Award-Winning TiD Tool for Designing Schools (Season 5, Episode 1)

Panel: Janet Roche, J. Davis Harte, Christine Cowart, Molly Pierce

(Music / Open)

Janet: In this series we will be discussing specific examples of design techniques that make a positive difference for people living with certain human conditions.

Carolyn: The more a designer understands the client and or the community the more effective and respectful the design will be.

(Music / Intro)

Janet: Welcome everyone, we have a very special show for you today. I am very excited to be not only hosting this episode, but also participating, as I was one of the researchers. With a great team that you’ll meet shortly, we created the Trauma-informed Design Evaluation tool for Kindergarten thru 12th grade. Otherwise known as the EDRA CORE award-winning TiDEvalk12 tool— if I might toot my own horn.

Carolyn: In my opinion, there’s no need to be humble, this one is definitely worthy of one or two toots of your own .

Janet: I really appreciate that Carolyn. This was a lot of hard work, and we’re getting a lot of really great feedback and it’s being explored literally around the world. So we’re very excited about it, so yes, ‘toot-toot’ for us.

Carolyn: Maybe explain the title…

Janet: I can do that, well, it’s TID- Trauma-informed Design; eval- because it’s an evaluation tool; and it’s for K through 12… so, TID-Eval-K-12 tool.

Carolyn: We’ll talk about the tool shortly, but Janet, before we get into your interview with the team… why don’t you start by telling us a little about Trauma-Informed Design, and how it led to form the Trauma Informed Design society.

Janet: Happy to… first, Trauma-informed Design, or TiD, is about integrating principles of trauma-informed care, as originally established by, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (or SAMHSA) and continually evolving into design. The goal is to create physical spaces that promote safety, well-being, and healing. This requires realizing how the physical environment affects identity, worth, and dignity, and how it promotes empowerment.

The Trauma-informed Design Society was started in early 2018 and is co-founded by myself, along with Davis Harte and Christine Cowart. Our panel today includes Davis Harte, or as we like to call her around here Dr. Harte, who like me is an inclusive design professional, and you might recognize her from other IDP episodes.

Christine Cowart is our in-house Trauma-informed Care professional, who has also joined us for past episodes. Also joining us today is Molly Pierce, who was on board as our Occupational Therapy specialist. All of their LinkedIn profiles are available on our website at: InclusiveDesigners.com

Carolyn:  And I’ll jump back in here to say: This assessment tool was created through research performed by the Trauma-informed Design Society, with assistance from over 100 participating educators and designers. It is intended to be used to evaluate schools and identify changes in the physical environment that can lower the stress levels of students and staff.

It is grounded in SAMHSA’s guidance for a trauma-informed approach, and the Trauma-informed Design Society’s framework. And we should also mention that this project was supported by American Society of Interior Designers, Foundation Research Grant.

Janet: And with that, I think it’s time to let everyone hear from the team about just what the tool is, and how it is already helping in the design of K through 12 schools.

Carolyn: Yes, I agree. And so here is our episode with Janet, Davis, Christine, and Molly… the force behind this award-winning evaluation tool.

(Music / Interview)

Janet: Hello and welcome to ‘Inclusive Designers Podcast’. We’ve got a great show for you today. We are going to be talking to my teammates for the Trauma-informed Design Evaluation Tool. The grant we got, which was through ASID, the American Society of Interior Designers Foundation. And we will go and talk a lot about what is trauma, what is trauma informed design, and what was the tool and some of the things that we did to create the tool and how we see the future of Trauma-informed Design.

So, without any further ado, I’m going to go around the room, and we will start with, well, I’ll start with myself. How about that? I’m not only going to be the host today, but I am also going to be a participant as I was one of the Trauma-informed Design professionals assigned for this particular evaluation tool.

Oh, and I’m here in Boston and I am in my office, so if you hear any background noise, occasionally we try to block it out, but you know, some, it’s not a perfect world, but here we are. With that, I’m going to introduce J. Davis Harte, or as we know her around here as Dr. Harte. So Dr. Harte, would you please introduce yourself?

Davis: Hello everybody. I am J. Davis Harte. I’m known as Davis, and I am happy to come to you today from Oregon in my office. I am the principal investigator for the Trauma-Informed Design K-12 Evaluation Tool. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Janet: Great, thank you Davis. Next up we’ve got Christine Cowart.

Christine: Hi, my name is Christine Cowart. My pronouns are she/her. I was the Trauma-informed Care consultant on the tool, and I’m happy to be here.

Janet: Great. Thanks Christine. Christine’s coming from the great state of Vermont.

Christine: I am indeed. I’m here in my office in Vermont, and if you hear anything, it’s likely to be cows. (laughs).

Janet: Thank you so much Christine for being here. Next up we have Molly Pierce. Hi Molly.

Molly: Hi, yes, I’m Molly Pierce, and I come to you from Oregon, and I come to this team with an extensive background as an Occupational Therapist. So I am just really happy to be here and be a part of this team and this podcast. So thank you.

Janet: Thank you, Molly. So let’s jump right on in. We’ve got a lot to cover today. Obviously, everybody can jump in at any point in time. Ch