Ecumenical Center in San Antonio<\/a> followed SAFD for over a year as Westerhoff and SAFD leadership helped establish new policies regarding how staff interact with the public and with each other.<\/p>\n\u201cSo what is trauma-informed care? It\u2019s so that we understand it\u2019s not about what\u2019s wrong with you, but instead it\u2019s what happened to you,\u201d Ecumenical Center CEO Mary Beth Fisk said.<\/p>\n
The Ecumenical Center in San Antonio is the only organization in the country appointed by a national board to certify organizations and companies as \u201ctrauma-informed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have over 40 organizations that are certified in our city, and I will tell you that we have another 40 that are in the process,\u201d Fisk said. \u201dWe have certified companies in other parts of Texas, and even out of state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those organizations are in all different sectors, including: <\/p>\n
Healthcare<\/p>\n
Education<\/p>\n
Faith organizations<\/p>\n
Government entities such as Metro Health, the San Antonio Police Department, SAFD, etc.<\/p>\n
Foster care organizations<\/p>\n
Nonprofits<\/p>\n
Any company or organization can apply to be certified, regardless of sector or number of employees.<\/p>\n
What Fisk wants companies to understand is that the process is long, taking at least a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have multiple standards that have to be met,\u201d Fisk said. \u201dStandards in safety, training, collaboration, trustworthiness, and organization culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The companies have to prove those standards and document them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to survey their internal staff and customers. We want to know that if they got feedback, what did they do with it? They need a trauma-informed policy,\u201d Fisk explained. \u201dThey need to begin this vocabulary by asking themselves, \u2018Was that trauma-informed?\u2019 Then we have a desk review, and it\u2019s very intensive. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s where they send a sampling, how they have implemented all of the standards, and then lastly, we do a site visit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also involved updating some of our physical spaces,\u201d Westerhoff said about the fire department. \u201dSome of the rooms we use for whatever purpose to make sure they\u2019re safe and people are comfortable, and not nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies have been vocal about how the certification has helped them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s improved their business model, how it\u2019s brought them more business as well,\u201d Fisk said. \u201dIf you\u2019re a nonprofit and competitively looking at funding, there\u2019s an opportunity there to differentiate yourself one from another.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrauma-informed care can change an entire department, and not just the department but the community,\u201d Westerhoff said.<\/p>\n
She explained it\u2019s not just about the companies, but also the benefits to employees.<\/p>\n
Staff members who work at certified organizations can include that on their resumes and use those skills in future jobs or roles.<\/p>\n
Most of the organizations the Ecumenical Center has certified are certified as level one.<\/p>\n
However, there is a level two certification for organizations that want to take it a step further. There is also a level three certification reserved for specific individuals, such as workers in early childhood education or faith communities.<\/p>\n
To learn more about certification, visit the Ecumenical Center website<\/a>.<\/p>\nRead also: <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Fire Department just became the first fire department in the nation to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411,128791,105075,122998],"class_list":["post-354148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-safd","tag-san-antonio","tag-we-follow-through"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}