Bartholomewtown is an independent news and interview podcast exploring Rhode Island through conversations with the people driving politics, culture, business, and public life. Hosted by journalist Bill Bartholomew, the show delivers insightful interviews, original reporting, and clear-eyed analysis from New England's smallest state—with stories that often resonate far beyond it.
Trauma-Informed Policing in Rhode Island and Beyond
Bill Bartholomew speaks with Liz Gledhill, director of the Center for Trauma Informed Policing at Family Service of Rhode Island, about a Rhode Island-built model that trains law enforcement to respond to families and children in crisis with more empathy, better situational awareness, and less additional harm. The conversation focuses on how the Go Team model evolved, why it matters at the first point of police contact, and what it takes to scale trauma-informed policing nationally.In this episode, they also discuss the balance between public safety and trauma-informed response, how community trust is built one interaction at a time, and why state funding matters when agencies are asked to adopt new trainings.
Key topics
Liz Gledhill explains her role as director of the Center for Trauma Informed Policing at Family Service of Rhode Island and the center’s Rhode Island roots.
The Trauma Informed Policing Center launched this summer as a national training initiative built from Rhode Island experience and made available to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Family Service of Rhode Island has worked with police for about 25 years, including long-running partnership work with the Providence Police Department.
The model is designed to help officers respond to children and families exposed to trauma without compounding the harm already happening in the moment.
Bill and Liz discuss how trauma-informed policing can interrupt the cycle of additional trauma during police interactions, especially when children are present at scenes such as domestic violence calls.
The conversation highlights the importance of first contact, with Liz emphasizing that children and families need to feel safe at the moment police arrive.
They talk about how co-response models and community-based partnerships help connect people to family services and other resources instead of relying on police to solve every problem alone.
Liz describes Rhode Island’s Go Team model, which grew from an adapted version of a Connecticut approach and has expanded into seven communities, with more planned.
The episode addresses trust between police and communities, with Liz noting that even one better interaction can help build a bridge or change expectations.
They discuss officer skepticism at the outset of training, and how practical results often win people over once they see the model improve interactions and make their jobs easier.
Bill asks about state support, and Liz says funding has increased, but warns against unfunded training mandates and argues that if the state wants departments to adopt these tools, it should help pay for them.
Timestamps
00:00 - Why trauma-informed policing matters now 00:59 - Liz Gledhill introduces the Center for Trauma Informed Policing 01:12 - How a Rhode Island pilot became a national training initiative 01:45 - 25 years of police partnership and the SAMHSA grant that launched the center 02:20 - How the training helps officers reduce harm during crisis response 03:21 - Why children at crisis scenes need protection even when they are not the focus 04:20 - Public safety and trauma-informed training can work together 05:36 - Rhode Island’s Go Team model and what it borrowed from Connecticut 06:58 - The ripple effect of police interactions on trust and lived experience 07:28 - How one safe interaction can start rebuilding community trust 08:57 - What rank-and-file officers think when the model is first introduced 09:21 - Why skepticism often turns into support after officers see the results 10:35 - Police unions, stakeholder input, and why the model has staying power 11:05 - What the state can do beyond grants and good intentions 11:21 - Why unfunded training mandates undermine real implementation 12:26 - Closing thoughts and thanks
Welcome into Bartholome Town. It's Bill Bartholomew. Remember, if you like what you're hearing right now, you can follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you are listening. So, an important conversation today that we're going to talk about something that thematically, I don't think we have really delved back into the trauma-informed space in a while. We spent a lot of time with Marcia Ranglin-Vassal, former state representative on trauma-informed education models a few years ago. We did a bunch of episodes on that. And it the so the fundamentals are laid out there. So I would encourage anyone who hears this episode today. Obviously, these are going to be very different conversations, but if you want to go deep, just search wherever you're listening right now for trauma-informed. You'll find some more background on this broad topic that we're discussing today with Family Service of Rhode Island. So we're going to talk about the TIP Center, which grew out of the Family Center of Rhode Island's longtime goatee model. But before we do so, Liz, um would you please introduce yourself for anybody who doesn't know who you are?
SPEAKER_01
Sure. I'm Liz Gledhill. I am the director of the Center for Trauma Informed Policing at Family Service of Rhode Island. I live down here in South Kingstown, but I've called Rhode Island home for all my life.
Bill Bartholomew
All right. So the Family Center of Rhode Island officially launched the Trauma Informed Policing Center this summer. It's a national training initiative that takes an approach developed and tested right here in Rhode Island and makes it available to law enforcement agencies across the country. You have been the champion of this project, Liz. So where did the idea come from and how did you initially get into the notion of, hey, we want to take this trauma-informed model and package it up into something that had a physical location and a f and an organizational background behind it to distribute?
SPEAKER_01
Sure. So as you mentioned, uh Family Service of Rhode Island has a long history in working with police and partnering on trauma response. So we've been working with the province police department for about 25 years now and just really committed to finding a more trauma-informed approach to how police deal with families and children specifically who are dealing with trauma. And about four years ago, uh we decided to apply for a grant through SAMHSA and uh fund this work and start the Center for Trauma-Informed Policing. So it's a national initiative that really looks to transform how law enforcement responds to children and families that are exposed to trauma.
Bill Bartholomew
Yeah. And now you make the materials available and the curriculum really as an and the online training platform. It's available for departments around the country, and you've got additional learning model modules and development. So the idea here is I understand it, look, it helps the officers recognize a situation and apply situational awareness and respond to the trauma in front of them. And then in doing so, kind of cut off the cycle that occurs where you're inflicting additional trauma during police interactions. And sometimes that can be disruptive to families in the moment, in the long term. So the concept here is on the spot, recognition on the part of law enforcement, but then also connecting all those providers, family services, et cetera, um, and strengthening, strengthening those partnerships. So also in real time, there's a backstop and there's a partnership with um reinforcement, if you will, from community-based organizations. Is that a fair summary?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, absolutely. So we know that trauma happens and we know that trauma has lifelong impacts. So what happens to a child when they're four, five, six years old can have lifetime impacts to how they grow as an adult and how they're able to adapt. So we really look at these traumatic experiences that families and children are facing and when they might come interaction with law enforcement. So maybe there is a domestic violence incident and police are first on scene. Obviously, they have a responsibility to establish safety and deal with whatever the crisis is in the moment, but how can they also act in a way that minimizes the traumatic impact to the children that are there? You know, the children aren't necessarily the focus of the call, but they are often profoundly impacted by it. And so by addressing that trauma impact early, we can lead to children who grow up to be better adults, who are healthy, who have access to services, who are better connected in their communities. Um, it's really important that right at that critical moment, at the first point of contact, that we're making children and family skills safe.
Bill Bartholomew
Yeah, we can localize this right here, right now. Likely next mayor of Providence, the Democratic nominee, David Morales, has already indicated, I think it was over the weekend with Ted Nisi and Tim White on N on uh not NBC Dent on WPRI-12 that he wants to hire a police, um, a public safety commissioner that has a background in exactly the type of work that you're applying. A lot of people heard that and said, well, that means he doesn't want somebody with any law enforcement background. Obviously, what you're saying right here is that you can walk and chew gum at the same time.
SPEAKER_01
Oh, absolutely. I think anybody that's committed to uh keeping their community safe, you know, we're all for that. So whatever that looks like, whether that's a commitment to co-response models where we make sure the people that are needed on scene are available and accessible to the community, and also training law enforcement so that they have the tools they need to handle any crisis that comes their way. Um, I think that often we think it's easy to say that, you know, we'd rather police not go to every call. But unfortunately, the system that we have right now really puts police almost in every single call and every single emergency. And so while that system exists, we need to make sure that, you know, they're prepared to deal with whatever they see in the most compassionate way possible. And I think looking at it from a trauma-informed lens really, really does that for police officers.
Bill Bartholomew
This is a blueprint that was developed here in Rhode Island. So this is very much a Rhode Island story. What have you learned from other police departments or other trauma-informed initiatives that have you've been able to say, hey, that's a good model that ex-police department or ex-organization has developed and incorporate into your work?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So it's interesting because when we started the Go team, which is our co-response model that we have uh here in Rhode Island, we were really kind of pioneers in in the field. We looked to Connecticut, uh, where they had what was called a um CDCP model, which was like a, I can't remember what the acronym stands for off the top of my head now, but um, it was very similar to the model we have, except it was clinically focused. And what we did was we took that and we adapted it and said, not every crisis requires a clinical response. Sometimes there's basic needs that need to be met, where we need to establish safety, we need to help secure people, connect them to family or resources. And how can we create a model that does that? And that's what we started 25 years ago. And now we've expanded into seven communities. We have several more in the wings that we hope to expand into this year. And it's just so heartening to see in Rhode Island this commitment to how can we serve our communities better? How can we show up prepared with compassion and empathy to get these families, not just the people that are directly affected, but often the bystanders and the witnesses to what's happening? How can we make sure that they're safe and they're secure and they're getting what they need? Um I think that's you to Rhode Island. I think we're really special.
Bill Bartholomew
Yeah, that's such an important element of this, the ripple effect, if you will, of police interactions. It's just the reality. You know, it's just the reality on the ground and it has such a lasting impact. It has such an and it creates such an uh an understandable attitude at times amongst people who have had interactions with police and it's based on experience, lived experience. Right. So exactly. How much of this work is also bridging those relationships and trying to re reform or even reintroduce trust into communities, or hey, how about this for the first time try to create trust with communities between those communities and law enforcement?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So I can't fix, and we can't fix, obviously, um, the relationships between police and communities where there's been damage that um, you know, has nothing to do with with us or our efforts or anybody else's. I think that what we have to do is consider the circumstances that we have and where we're at and um what resources that we have. And so we're trying to give these officers tools so that maybe somebody is distrustful of police, but maybe their first interaction with them is one where they felt safer or where they got to sort of break that mold where they had in their mind police were gonna look like one thing, but they ended up being another. Um, and you know, not every community is gonna have that benefit, but fortunately we're seeing more and more that are saying, you know, we were showing up to these calls, and every single interaction that law enforcement has is an opportunity to build trust and to build a bridge between them and the community. So thinking about how we can just make those moments a little bit better. And it doesn't have to be novel. This could just be how do you connect with somebody? How do you secure them in that moment when they're they're afraid and when they're scared and make them know that you're there to keep them safe and to be their champion? Sometimes it's as simple as just introducing yourself and getting on their level and and playing with a child. That can be the difference between somebody feeling safe and somebody being terrified of the situation.
Bill Bartholomew
What's the reaction been from, say, have you had any interactions with Mike Amondi, the head of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge in Providence, or other boots on the ground, if you will, rank and file type of police officers? Or is this something that is more interactive with management, if you will, police chiefs, public safety commissioners, and so forth?
SPEAKER_01
Well, certainly to implement this type of training or this type of model, um, you always have to start working with leadership. But when we designed these trainings and when we designed this model, we did it with stakeholder investment. So not only was it, you know, victims and people that might be affected by this work, but police officers who are on the ground and in patrol that see this kind of stuff every day because we want to find something that works. And often when we start in a new community this type of work, there's healthy skepticism amongst officers, you know, something that they haven't seen before, you know, sounds kind of like, are we telling them to go hug everybody? They might not quite understand what we're trying to accomplish. But the proof is really in the work. And as soon as we partner a law enforcement officer with one of our liaisons or when they go through one of our trainings, we see almost immediately they're like, oh, this does work. Oh, this makes my job easier because I'm making people feel safer, I'm having better interactions, and I'm connecting these people with resources so that they're not relying on police to solve problems that are really meant for our community partners to solve. Um, and so I think that usually we are met with a little bit of skepticism, but I would say every community we've started a go team in, uh, we've stayed and we've never left. So I think that's a testament to the staying power of this work and how important it is.
Bill Bartholomew
Aaron Powell That's an unbelievable testament right there in an environment where you have police unions that have enormous power oftentimes, not necessarily over the programming that they're assigned in the training sense, but no doubt if this was something that received a huge amount of pushback, there is an apparatus for that to take place. So it's a testament to the incorporation of um you know feedback into developing this. Any other thoughts here in terms of where I I guess my my last question, and it's sort of just in general, your thoughts, but what what do you need from the state? What do you need, what do you need right now outside of grants, outside of uh generous somebody wants to write you a check for $10 billion, that could help the cause. But but from from the state right now, um as an entity from the General Assembly and the governor's office, what do you need?
SPEAKER_01
Well, we're really fortunate to have a lot of state support. Um, this year they actually increased the amount of money that they're putting in the budget towards our expansion of go teams across the state. Um so we're really grateful for that. I think what the state needs to think about is they often mandate trainings and they often, you know, require police departments or other first responders to take certain trainings, but they're unfunded mandates. And so if we really want people to take these trainings and we really want them to invest in them, we need to give them mechanisms to do that. And that, whether that's through funding, whether that's through resources, um, you know, we I think really need to make that investment in training and say, we're gonna give people these tools, we're also gonna help pay for those tools because they're not free. You know, there it does take investment, it does take sub subject matter expertise in order to develop them. So we kind of have to uh we have to walk the walk. If we say that we want these things, we need to be willing to pay for them. Um and fortunately, we've seen this legislature, uh the General Assembly right now, it's been so supportive of the work. So we hope that continues. Um and I think I'm excited to see what happens after this midterm election, too. It's always good to see um, you know, new leadership come into place and what their priorities are, and we're really looking forward to working with them.
Bill Bartholomew
Liz Gladhill, Family Service of Rhode Island. Thanks so much for your time today. Great program.
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