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0:00:08.6 Jackie Strohm: Welcome to PA Centered, a podcast designed to help listeners be a part of the solution to end sexual harassment, abuse and assault. Each episode, we will take on a topic or current event to help spark conversation and break down barriers to building communities free from sexual violence.

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0:00:32.3 JS: Hi, I'm Jackie Strohm, the Prevention and Resource Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. I'll be your host today as we're joined by members of the Keystone Crisis Intervention Team, or KCIT, to learn more about how they support communities after trauma occurs. Donna Welsh is the Coordinator of KCIT, and Melissa McDermott is the KCIT Outreach & Training Specialist. We are also joined by Tammi Burke from the Victims Resource Center, who volunteers with KCIT. Welcome, Donna, Melissa and Tammi.

0:01:06.3 Donna Welsh: Hi. Thanks.

0:01:07.4 Tammi Burke: Hi, Jackie.

0:01:08.1 Melissa McDermott: Thanks for having us.

0:01:11.9 JS: Great. So Donna, could you start by telling us how KCIT got started? 

0:01:15.1 DW: Yeah, I'd love to. Hi. So the Keystone Crisis Intervention Team, we're also known as KCIT, we started as an idea way back in about 1998 to address an unmet need throughout the commonwealth. Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which is also known as PCCD, they provided oversight and support during that time period of the development, and they gathered professionals from victim service realm to provide feedback of what was really missing in the state for services. And they basically felt that there was a real void for communities that experience trauma after a criminal event, and that's really how KCIT started.

0:02:03.2 DW: And then so what they did was, from that model, they started building out an entire model based on volunteers providing that service, and it's called a group crisis intervention that we provide. So I just wanna clarify that we're not a first response service, like police or emergency medical assistance. KCIT is a second line of defense for a community after a crime happens that leaves a community needing additional assistance. And we've been around for a long time. We're like one of Pennsylvania's best kept secrets right now. We're really trying to make that not an actual thing, that we really want people to know and our communities to know about KCIT. And just to give you a frame of reference, KCIT was the main responder after the plane crash in Pennsylvania during 9/11. So we've been providing group crisis interventions for communities throughout the state for over 23 years.

0:03:00.6 JS: That's amazing. So Melissa, what types of services does KCIT offer? 

0:03:06.5 MM: KCIT primarily offers our group crisis interventions to communities who've experienced crime. We're able to not only provide that in-person, but also virtually to handle people who have issues of accessibility, but also to make it super safe for people to ground and to feel safe during the time of COVID. So along with our interventions, which are primary, we also provide companioning at vigils and rallies, which is our volunteers that go and offer more one-on-one help instead of doing more of a group service. We also offer specialized training.

0:03:55.8 JS: Cool. So could you talk a little bit more about what kind of training you all offer? 

0:04:02.1 MM: Sure. So KCIT supports and certifies our volunteer force throughout the state. So before they can become active with us, they go through a comprehensive and lengthy training process that we supervise and accredit them. Part of it is learning, and the other part is skill-based, and the latter part of the training, they're working in a group alongside our seasoned volunteers who support them through the process of really getting to learn how to do that group crisis intervention. We also offer more niche trainings. Donna talked about how our service really does cover a gap between traditional trauma services offered for the community. As Donna said, usually there is a first response, which we do not do, and then if the effects are still lingering, people may seek out counseling to help.

0:05:12.9 MM: So just as our services address an unmet need, our trainings look to do the same. So when doing some research, our predecessors found that death notification was really an area that victim service providers, as well as other professionals who deal with victims throughout the state, such as police and even coroners, were really in search and in need of a trauma-informed way of giving the news, and to help support them and point them in the right direction. So that's been a really great training that we've been able to offer throughout the state.

0:05:58.5 MM: We're also developing, which I'm personally very excited about, is a spirituality for victim service providers. So we know that when something huge and traumatic happens, it can really shift our worldview and leave us questioning beliefs that helped guide us throughout our life before, and wanting to be really holistic with how we treat the person. We're gonna be able to offer this to victim service providers to help them hear themes of those more spiritual questions when clients are suffering and to really help guide them through forming a new narrative, looking for new meaning after senseless acts have occurred.

0:06:49.1 MM: We also have our validating trauma training. This is maybe a little bit more of a popular subject. But we do get into some more topics that maybe aren't as explored, such as how the difference between an incident of trauma and how attachment and maybe early childhood trauma may affect later incidents of victimization and re-victimization with clients, and getting service providers to really understand how to validate some of those harder to label traumas where it's not as well-understood as maybe a personal act of violence that you can see the scars from, and you can see and clearly label it.

0:07:53.6 MM: So validation is a big part of also our group crisis intervention training. It's a big skill that our volunteers are trained on. And so that leads into our validating trauma training. And a quote that we like to highlight from that training is that, "Trauma is not... Trauma is personal. It does not disappear if it is not validated. When it is ignored or invalidated, the silent scream continues internally heard by the one held captive." And I actually don't have who wrote that, but I believe it is in a book that people can Google. I don't wanna take credit for it.

0:08:43.6 DW: I just wanna add on to what Melissa has talked about with the trainings is that right now, many of our trainings are provided free, free of service, because we are covered by a grant. So this is... It's a wonderful way to do professional development in this time. And given that they're virtual, it even keeps the cost lower. So that is something... And we're gonna continue to provide virtual trainings, even when we can do face-to-face. It'll be an option for us. So that is... I'm excited about that, and we've had a lot of great feedback about the trainings.

0:09:24.1 MM: Yeah. As Donna just mentioned, for some of our more specialized trainings, limited funding is still available. So if you or your group is interested, feel free to email us, go on our website, I'm sure we'll give out our contact information at the end here, and you can set up a training for you or your group. But after that, we... It won't be free for much longer, so take advantage of it while you're able.

0:09:53.9 JS: That's great. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what happens when you all go out and do what you call a deployment? And can you talk about if that's also free for communities? 

0:10:08.9 DW: Okay, I'm gonna jump in here. One of the things I like to say is the deployments is like the heart of KCIT. It's like that is, really, the foundation of who KCIT is, and that's what we are known for. It's where we send out a group of professionally trained volunteers, and we provide a group crisis intervention for communities that been impacted by a crime event, and trauma ensues. And this service is provided. Like we've already said a couple of times, and I just... We can't emphasize this enough, is that we aren't the first responder. We come in after the first responders have left.

0:10:55.4 DW: And so it's not therapy. It's a one-time session that brings together a group of people who have experienced something similar, and allows them to process together. And that group process can be very cathartic to allow people to hear what others are currently experiencing, and also allows them to hopefully create that path to move forward to heal. And so it's a process that really emphasizes normalizing what they're experiencing through their five senses. So we connect them to what they're feeling, what they've seen, what they've heard, what they're smelled during that time period, and also how it may impact them moving forward.

0:11:50.0 DW: And so it's really just helping them normalize what they're actually experiencing, because as we know, trauma impacts people not just today, but next week, next month, next year. When they experience or hear or smell or experience something similar, it can bring them back to that time and place when they experienced that trauma. And what we do is we try to group people based on what their experience was. So witnesses would stay together and someone maybe that was on the outside or on the sideline of it that didn't witness it, but heard about it or was in the same building or had family members there. So we try to group people based on very similar experience.

0:12:38.2 MM: Yeah. And Donna mentioned the senses, and that is an important part of the KCIT model because we do recognize that trauma is a sensory event, and it is... As many people know, the body keeps the score. So the senses are how the body gets its information. And when the body is getting information during a traumatic event, it isn't processed the same way as our normal cognition, where you can readily access it later as a memory with a beginning, middle and end. In the height of your trauma, the senses take in information, and it stays in that really kind of just frightening state as when you first took it in. It's not digested.

0:13:34.3 MM: So the aim of this model is to help you begin to... If it's feeling safe enough. And one thing that we will say is that participation is always voluntary. Because if you're not ready for this, it's best to do what you need to do, and it's not something where you should force yourself just to feel like, "Oh, it's something I should do." Trauma healing is best when it's taken slow and when you can discern whether it's safe enough for you, but usually people do find that they feel like it's safe enough. They're supported with resources that we give out after and their community around them. And we can help them really locate some of those senses that may or may not trigger them in the future or be triggering them now and help to start digest them, to digest them and to help their memory organize a narrative that is a little more easy to deal with.

0:14:41.2 DW: And just like we said earlier, that it's not a therapy session, it's not group therapy. However, we do recognize that we're laying down that path for them in this... The path of healing this journey. And so we don't... We make sure that we leave them with a list of resources for them, whether it be in their community or outside of their community. We make sure that they have a list of contacts. And oftentimes what we do is, even prior to the actual deployment, KCIT is in touch with a lot of the local services to make sure that they know that this is gonna be happening, that they might be getting calls from some people from our session.

0:15:21.7 MM: And as Donna mentioned, it is not therapy. And you might be wondering, "Well, what's the difference really?" The difference is we don't go deep. During crisis, you wanna keep people stable until, like I mentioned, they're ready to dig deeper. So crisis intervention's goal is keeping people feeling stable, keeping them feeling safe. And so while they are starting to digest some of those senses, we never probe, we never go further than people are willing to go at the moment. And that is also why it's important for us to group people with like experiences of that event.

0:16:03.1 JS: That sounds like a really meaningful experience, and I'm so glad that these services are available in Pennsylvania. So you shared before that KCIT is built on volunteers. And so, Tammi, as a volunteer for KCIT, I would love for you to share what your experience has been like.

0:16:23.7 TB: So Jackie, I became part... I became aware of KCIT probably in the late '90s, probably right when it started, and I worked for an agency that works and provides services to victims of crime. And at that time, the executive director and the clinical director became volunteers for KCIT. During our full staff meetings, they would always talk about it, not share the confidential piece, but the importance of the work that KCIT was doing, and their opportunities they've had to volunteer. There was times that they'd go on deployments. They wouldn't be able to share any information, but I knew something probably bad happened somewhere across Pennsylvania. And then during 9/11, both of the directors were deployed somewhere. And again, they didn't share any of that information, but I knew they went somewhere, and I knew the work that they were doing was really important, and I really wanted to be a part of that team.

0:17:17.3 TB: But at that time, late '90s, I had children, I was working at a crisis center, I was on call, and I mean being on call for hotline calls, but also going out in the middle of the night to the hospitals, and raising the kids. I couldn't give up more time. So I waited for a long time. Actually, I waited 15 years in order to join KCIT. So probably late December, in December 2015, I applied. And in 2016, they chose me to be a member, which I was really excited. They provided me with some fantastic trainings that I was able not only to use for KCIT, but to apply to the work that I do, because the work that KCIT does is really similar to the work that I do. The group and the way that the groups are done are different, but it's the same basis, the information that's provided.

0:18:09.8 TB: The other piece about that is my agency was really supportive of being a volunteer. They supported my choice of doing that, but also they allowed me to take off when needed to to do deployments. So I can remember the first time facilitating. I was really, really nervous doing that. But I also had the opportunity prior to that to be a scribe. So I was able to watch other people in that role before I had to do it. And why did I wanna do it? Maybe it was selfish on my part I wanted to make a difference, and I do truly believe that KCIT makes a difference. And I also want those that are affected by crime to get the support and the resources they need, and KCIT does that. So that's one of the big things. And being a part of that, I got to build relationships with all people from all over Pennsylvania. You get to network. So I have participated in the deployments prior to COVID, and I have participated in the deployments after COVID.

0:19:21.5 JS: Sounds like it's been a really rewarding experience to be part of.

0:19:27.3 TB: It is really rewarding. It is.

0:19:29.4 JS: Great. So I know you just mentioned that you've been able to be part of deployments before COVID and during, and we all know that so many things have changed in our lives because of the pandemic, and the way that KCIT does things is no exception. So, Donna, could you tell us about just what it's been like doing things during COVID or if there's anything that you've learned during this virtual year, and are there things that you're gonna take with you in the future? 

0:20:00.8 DW: Yeah, well, that's a big question. Big year we had. Well, just like most people and organizations, this past year, we've learned to adapt and adjust to a virtual world. This impacted not just the way we deliver trainings and deployments, but also allowed us to look critically at content and how we can best reach participants, 'cause it was... It's a whole different way, as you know, just doing everything virtually. Just, it's a very different way to connect and for people to accept that information. So we've had to be very creative, such as we created a book study group, and we talked about... Melissa mentioned, one of the books, actually, that we're doing right now in the book study group, is The Body Keeps Score. And we're using that as a way to enhance professional development, while also connecting to our volunteers, 'cause we have volunteers all over the state. And so it's giving us a way to just make those ties.

0:21:03.3 DW: We've also expanded our social media outreach to include new ways to connect, things like highlighting our volunteers every month, and we're gonna create a virtual newsletter that's gonna be just a... We don't wanna call it newsletter, we're calling it a connection, that every quarter, we can make that a connection with our volunteers. So those are some little steps we've made, and also changing all of our trainings to be on a virtual platform. But the biggest leap KCIT made was adapting KCIT's deployment to a virtual platform. And this took much more than just writing some words on a paper and say, "Oh, this is new protocol. We're just gonna do it all on Zoom." It was a real process, and it was an evolution over time.

0:21:51.4 DW: When we first started this out, we... We have these amazing... We have amazing volunteers, and we've really depended on our volunteers to help us through this process as we modified and enhanced the model after every deployment. So we'd do a deployment, we'd have a... We'd Team it and say, "What worked? What didn't work? And how do we make this better?" And the beautiful thing is, is like all... There's no egos here. It's all about just making this the best we can make it. And now, we truly feel we're at that point where we have a service that is very... It's not just adapted, it's successful virtually, and we're really pretty proud of it.

0:22:36.5 DW: So when we talk about moving forward and what this pandemic has created for us, to us, for me, and for, I know, Melissa, I'm speaking for you, I feel as though it's created a lot of opportunities for KCIT. It opens up the possibilities for recruiting volunteers. And Tammi spoke a little bit about that, is that now we're able to provide communities at a moment's notice, a service that would take a little bit longer to coordinate and provide because you'd have to travel maybe four hours. Now, we can do it pretty quickly.

0:23:17.9 DW: So we plan to continue to utilize virtual services beyond the pandemic. And when I talk about recruiting new volunteers, we now can recruit volunteers that may not have the job flexibility or an employer that might really allow for you to be gone for a couple of days for a deployment, and you could just be accessi... You just would need to be available for that two-hour period. And if it's in the evening, there's more options and more opportunities to recruit volunteers that have that capacity versus being able to travel. So we're excited about that.

0:24:00.9 DW: And we're gonna continue to provide virtual trainings, like I said earlier, because it's not just a successful option that we've been utilizing, it also provides a lot of cost savings. So when we no longer have free trainings that we can provide under our grant, we can continue to provide those trainings for a fee, but it's gonna be a lot less costly for the organization because it's virtual, and especially with organizations that might be on a tighter budget for training resources. So these are things that we're excited about that we'll continue to do and provide with KCIT.

0:24:38.6 JS: Tammi, I'm wondering if you would be able to just share a little bit about what it was like going from doing in-person deployments to virtual deployments? 

0:24:48.4 TB: There's a big difference. And I'll be really honest, I would prefer to do it in-person, but there are those benefits that Donna was talking about, that I could have joined 15 years ago 'cause I could have just done that from my house. And the other piece is that the participants that are in those groups, maybe some would have missed out, but now they can because childcare or whatever it might be worked for to be able to get back and forth. It's very different because of the work that you do. Being in a room, you can really see everybody's face and you can read that. If they don't put their camera on on Zoom, that's really hard.

0:25:27.6 TB: But I do think they still get the same benefit. And the reason that I think that is that when I've done... When I've facilitated the groups before, at the end of it, the in-person ones, people would come up and talk. And now, even though it's virtual, people still stay on, and still make comments, and they all participate. And I think it might be a little bit easier to participate when you're sitting in your living room than it is really in the big group. So I think there are some positive things. I think it's... Again, I will always think that it's easier for people to sit there, but I really like that they just didn't say, "Oh, we can't do that anymore." They found a way around that, and I think that's important because people need those services, and the community needs those services.

0:26:14.0 JS: That's great. Thank you so much for sharing that. So, Melissa, if somebody wanted to volunteer with KCIT or they needed assistance in their community, how can they get connected? 

0:26:27.6 MM: Sure. Well, to learn more about us, they could visit our web page, it is kcitpa.org. Or if they wanted to just request services, they could call our hotline number, it is 1-855-767-5248. And the other way to just contact us is through email. Donna's email is donna.welsh@novabucks.org, and my email is melissa@novabucks.org. So you can contact either of us, usually me for trainings and Donna for deployments.

0:27:13.4 DW: And so to become a volunteer, it's pretty basic. A person just would have to fill out an application, it's a pretty brief application, and they would also have to complete a basic response training that we provide, and just furnish us with a couple of references, as well as they would have to also provide clearances. And that's pretty much it. Yeah, it's pretty simple, and it's pretty basic.

0:27:44.2 TB: And I just wanna say that it's not a lot of time when we think about the whole piece. When you think about volunteering, "It's a lot of time. How am I gonna do that?" They only ask that we take a deployment once a year. And if you can't do that, then at least a training. Do you know what I mean? Those... In order... Just be active, that's not a lot to ask. So I think it's pretty easy to be the volunteer time-wise.

0:28:07.2 DW: You just brought up a really good point, Tammi, is that when people think of volunteering, they think that it's gonna be very time-consuming every week in their life. And that is one of the things about KCIT, is that you volunteer when you have the time. So what I do as the coordinator, when I have a deployment that's needed, I will send out a mass email to all of my volunteers, and I see who's available. So it could be a couple hours of your time every couple of months or it could be as much as you want, basically, as much as you wanna get involved. And we have other ways that we call on our volunteers. An example was how when we started to design and develop out our virtual deployments, we called out on some volunteers and said, "Could you be part of this process?" We value... Our volunteers are basically the foundation of KCIT, so we really depend on and value our volunteers.

0:29:08.9 DW: And we also provide... And we talked about the training that volunteers have to comply with. It's really just every other year if they haven't gone on a deployment, but it's also a way for them to get refreshed, and to freshen up with their skills, and to reconnect with the model of KCIT. And we call that our simulation training, and we're doing that actually right now. We're in the process of training all of our volunteers because we are doing everything virtually right now, and it's a great... We just want everyone to have that skillset of being in-person and virtual.

0:29:49.5 JS: That's awesome. I guess, one thing I wanted to see if you could all clarify is that if somebody wanted a deployment, they wanted someone to come to their community, is there somebody in particular that has to make that call or can it be anybody that can reach out? 

0:30:06.1 DW: It could be anybody that can reach out, but one of the things that KCIT needs, and we call it a host. Because this is a voluntary service, it is anonymous for the participants. We don't collect any information on the participants that go through our deployments. So we actually need an organization or an entity, whether it be an employer. To give you an example, I recently worked with a restaurant where their staff witnessed a crime occurring. And so I reached out to the manager, and the manager and I created the... We coordinated an outreach for all of the staff of the restaurant. But I don't collect that information, the manager would have all the information of who's gonna be attending, and I would then just send the manager or the host, whoever it is that's the main coordinator, I would send them all of the information, the links, all the pre-deployment literature that they could have to help support them until the actual deployment occurs. So we... I have all of that going electronically to the host.

0:31:20.8 JS: That's great. And then I know you shared that even after the deployment, you make sure that folks are connected to all of their local resources, which is even better. Alright. Well, Donna, Melissa, and Tammi, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about KCIT.

0:31:37.5 DW: It's our pleasure, and thank you so much for having us.

0:31:40.7 TB: Yes. Thank you, Jackie.

0:31:42.3 MM: Thanks, Jackie.

0:31:43.5 JS: Alright. That's all the time we have today. But thank you all for listening to this episode of PA Centered. You can learn more about KCIT by visiting kcitpa.org.

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0:32:02.0 JS: If you or a loved one needs help, a local sexual assault center is available 24/7. Call 1-888-772-7227 for more information, or find your local center online at pcar.org. Together, we can end sexual violence. Any views or opinions expressed on PA Centered by staff or their guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of PCAR or PCAR's funders.