Building trauma-informed and equitable capacity for city programs: enhancing workforce well-being and service quality in Boston

This manuscript presents the outcomes of a mixed-methods case study evaluating the implementation of a Trauma-Informed and Equitable (TIE) Learning Collaborative within the City of Boston workforce. It seeks to move beyond the theoretical benefits of trauma-informed care (TIC) to explore potential implementation drivers within real world settings that may predict TIC's successful program integration, focusing on readiness and capacity, acceptability, and self-care practices. Our findings reveal the complexities of implementing multi-level change initiatives within this sector, particularly during a period of increased macro-level stressors facing the public workforce. This study explores the gap between evidence-based interventions and their practical operationalization and evaluation in novel contexts. It provides an exploratory implementation study of strategies focusing on this underserved workforce and their constituents, the successes and challenges of which may offer useful insights for other practitioners and researchers navigating similar complexities.