Trauma and Restorative Justice Badge

Badge Overview

This badge contains 7 modules.

What is trauma? How does it intersect with other forms of social adversity? In this course, students will develop a trauma-informed lens that can be applied to a wide variety of professional settings. The course will explore restorative justice as a pathway to transform trauma in our communities. Students will learn about trauma, poverty and oppression with an emphasis on restorative practices that can be integrated into work and life.

This badge does not prepare you to provide mental health or crisis intervention. Instead, it focuses on building awareness, humility, and ethical boundaries. This badge will help you to begin to understand how people who live with trauma may experience the world, so you can develop your skills of working with such populations. You will learn about both the possibilities and the limits of restorative and trauma-informed approaches.

Badge Objectives

Upon successful completion of this badge, you will learn how to:

1.  Define trauma using SAMHSA’s three E’s framework.
2.  Explain the relationship between trauma and trauma-informed restorative approaches.
3.  Explain how trauma affects the brain and nervous system over time.
4.  Identify common trauma responses and their behavioral expressions.
5.  Identify protective factors that help interrupt cycles of harm and support healing.
6.  Apply a trauma‑informed and restorative lens to understanding responsibility and harm.
7.  Explain the purpose and core commitments of trauma‑informed principles.
8.  Identify and describe the six core trauma‑informed principles.
9.  Explain how institutional responses to harm can intensify or reduce trauma.
10.  Apply trauma‑informed restorative questions to real‑world situations.