Trauma-Informed Design

Join us at 3:30 for 1 AIA LU or1.5 AICP CM's and learn about cutting-edge concept: Trauma-Informed Design, sponsored by APA Colorado. Happy hour with FREE drink ticket (limited to the first 60 attendees) to follow from 5-6pm. Meet architecture and planning professionals in the Colorado Springs area!

Trauma-Informed Design is a cutting-edge concept that explores how the built design can help folks heal and thrive from Trauma. For decades, trauma-informed care services have been offered in places as diverse as homeless shelter, affordable housing, Pr*son, and now even schools. Our multi-disciplinary team of architects, social workers, and environmental engineers have pursued research in how the built design can help individuals heal from trauma – basing our work on best practices from trauma-informed care. The presentation will explore (1) how our brain works/responds to trauma, (2) the results from our 3.5 years of TID research specifically centering the voices of the unhoused, and (3) how to bring a TID lens to a design process.

Learning Objectives:

1. Upon completion, participants will be able to define how trauma impacts the human brain, and how to integrate mental health into the design of buildings to improve occupant wellbeing.

2. Upon completion, participants will be able to describe and summarize the basic tenets of trauma-informed design, and their effect on the health, safety, and wellbeing of the community

3. Upon completion, participants will be able to give examples of trauma-informed design in the built environment and compare building features and whether they fit into a TID mindset, as well as the effect on occupant mental health.

4. Upon completion, participants will be able to create a frame of how to implement TID into the design of future projects to benefit the health, safety, and wellbeing of both the occupants, the staff, and the community at large.

Length of Presentation including Q/A: 1.5 hours

Bios of presenters:

- Chad Holtzinger, AIA: Shopworks Architecture was formed in 2012 by Chad Holtzinger. The primary focus of the firm is urban infill development with a particular interest in affordable housing, transit oriented and mixed use development and community-oriented projects. Chad has practiced architecture for more than 20 years and has been licensed in Colorado since 2001. His career has revolved primarily around affordable housing design and mixed-use development in the City of Denver. His unique multidisciplinary approach to design results in innovative, high performing, enduring architecture.

- Laura Rossbert: Laura joined Shopworks Architecture in 2019 after co-leading the development of Arroyo Village in Denver, which created a new homeless shelter for women and transgender individuals, 35 units of supportive housing, and 95 units of workforce housing using a trauma-informed lens. Laura brings to Shopworks her experiences as a non-profit leader and community organizer/community engagement specialist. She is using her expertise and knowledge in best practices in homelessness and supportive housing to inform building design at Shopworks and find solutions to barriers to affordable housing, with special attention to trauma, resiliency, and equity.

- Jennifer Wilson: Jennifer brings to Shopworks over 15 years of social work experience in direct practice, program management, research and evaluation, training, and teaching. As a researcher and social scientist, her work focuses on social innovations and interdisciplinary collaboration that address social inequity, with specific attention to the experience of homelessness and housing precarity. She possesses expertise working with community partners and in community- based settings seeking to advance the development, testing, and dissemination of evidence-based practices

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Jack Quinn's Attic (2nd Floor), 21 South Tejon Street, Colorado Springs, United States