Back in 2010, after Tonette Walker became Wisconsin’s first lady, she went to a workshop with other new first ladies from other states, a kind of orientation. One of the topics there was choosing causes to champion.
“They were talking to the first ladies about ‘pick what you love, do something you love so you can make a difference,’” Walker recalled Tuesday morning during a visit to La Crosse as part of the Walker administration's two-day Cabinet on the Road event.
Walker, who became first lady when husband Scott was elected governor in 2010, gravitated toward foster care as her cause, narrowing her focus after she talked with a couple of doctors who worked with abused children about two ideas that were new to her: adverse childhood experiences and trauma-informed care.
“That was it. I was done. I knew that would be it,” said Walker, who launched her Fostering Futures effort in 2011 to spread awareness about the effect of childhood trauma on people’s lives and the importance of taking that into account when dealing with both children and adults. “Our goal every day is to have all of Wisconsin trauma informed.”
Trauma-informed care boils down to approaching people – children and adults – who get into trouble with different questions in mind. “It’s not ‘what’s wrong with you?’ It’s ‘what happened to you?’” said state Office of Children’s Mental Health director Elizabeth Hudson, who visited La Crosse Tuesday with Walker. “We often judge the way people act without understanding their experiences.”
[For more of this story, written by Randy Erickson, go to http://lacrossetribune.com/new...25-b6596e48d060.html]
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