Strengthening community capacity to address trauma through a Community Ambassador Network

Community ambassadors (CAs) are advocates that build trust with communities on behalf of service systems and facilitate access to resources. Whether and how CAs can support community engagement within a large initiative to build capacity to address the impact of trauma is unclear. This study explores how a Community Ambassador Network supported community engagement with "Innovations 2 Initiative" (INN 2), a 5-year initiative that addressed trauma across nine communities in Los Angeles County.

CAs were recruited from nine community-based partnerships to participate in a focus group, which explored their roles and experiences with INN 2 and their impact on community engagement. Data were collected in 2022 and were analyzed using a pragmatic two-phase strategy for efficient qualitative data analysis. Twenty-six CAs participated in six focus groups. Participants mostly spoke English (82%), identified as Latinx (50%) or Black (23%) and as cisgender female (48%); average age was 40 years.

CAs implemented workshops and provided health education to the community. They reported being the community's first point of contact with INN 2 and believed they improved credibility of the human service sector. While CAs felt supported by the Department of Mental Health, some wanted more trust from their supervisors.

CAs described various ways that they engaged historically excluded communities in INN activities and the organizational supports that facilitated this work. Training in trauma informed principles and support from their supervisors were regarded essential to this work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).