Reimagining student supports: A trauma-informed approach

Joshua Williams, associate director of Holistic Student Supports at Achieving the Dream, has spent his career working alongside students whose lives — and academic paths — are shaped by trauma, resilience, and the need for care-centered systems. In this blog, he draws on personal experience and field examples to explore what it means for colleges to build trauma-informed ecosystems of care — ones that recognize students as whole people and create environments where trust, dignity, and connection are central to support. 

“I don’t want to graduate because I don’t want to lose my housing.” Jessica, a senior at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), said those words to me during a check-in three months prior to her graduation. She was part of the Toro Guardian Scholars, a program, which I directed, that supports students with lived experience in foster care.  

For many, graduating from college is a huge milestone and one of the proudest moments of one’s life. For Jessica, it marked the end of the stability that she was able to gain after transferring to CSUDH three years prior, and the thought of it brought back memories of past transitions and the housing instability she experienced while navigating the foster care system. She didn’t have much of an external support system to act as a safety net like many of us have after graduating from college. As the day she was to receive her diploma approached, the fear of returning to that place of uncertainty was overwhelming. Jessica’s fear wasn’t irrational. She was trying to plan for her future while holding together her present and being triggered by her past. What helped was not just her own determination but the support team around her from people who understood what she was navigating and responded with flexibility and care. 

Jessica’s story is just one example. Fortunately, her story ended positively with her finding a job and a stable place to live before she graduated. However, not everyone with a similar past can say that their college story culminates in the same way. In fact, less than 10% of foster youth obtain a degree, and many are retraumatized by their experiences while navigating college.  

Former foster youth are just one example. I’ve worked with parenting students balancing their education with the cost of child care, justice-impacted students navigating the stigmas of being formerly incarcerated, undocumented students fearful to access resources due to the citizenship status of themselves and their loved ones, and LGBTQIA+ students managing isolation or lack of affirmation.  

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“As students bring their full selves to campus every single day, we must recognize the experiences of the students we serve and build trauma-informed environments that allow them to feel more comfortable seeking the support they need to navigate higher education.”
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These are examples of the new “traditional” college students that represent today’s higher education landscape. As students bring their full selves to campus every single day, we must recognize the experiences of the students we serve and build trauma-informed environments that allow them to feel more comfortable seeking the support they need to navigate higher education. When campuses adopt trauma-informed principles, they start to address students’ needs and mitigate their experiences of feeling triggered or “othered” in higher education spaces.  

Creating an ecosystem of support 

It doesn’t matter how many services colleges offer if students don’t feel safe using them. Students need to trust that when they ask for help, they won’t be judged or retraumatized. This is a core tenet of trauma-informed practice: relationships and trust come before resource delivery. At CSUDH, building that trust meant building working relationships across the institution with Financial Aid, Basic Needs, Advising, Career Services, Housing, Development and other offices that were critical to student success. We developed liaisons in each department, hosted joint meetings, invited them to community-building events with students, and practiced warm handoffs so that students felt more comfortable seeking support as needed.   

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“It doesn’t matter how many services colleges offer if students don’t feel safe using them. Students need to trust that when they ask for help, they won’t be judged or retraumatized. This is a core tenet of trauma-informed practice: relationships and trust come before resource delivery.”
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We grounded our work in theory — like Schlossberg’s Transition Theory, which helped us understand how students respond to change, and the Eight Dimensions of Wellness, which challenged us to consider multiple aspects of student well-being. But more than that, we paid attention to the everyday needs of students by listening to them, reflecting, and making changes accordingly.  

This did not necessarily stop students from being triggered at certain moments throughout their academic journeys, but it did allow us to develop genuine relationships with students built on care, which, in turn, encouraged them to seek support when they were at their most vulnerable. Additionally, the coordination between departments helped students build the navigational capital they needed when they had a specific issue. Eventually, students started seeking support directly with our liaisons through the relationships they were able to build with them. The hope was for students to experience the institution as one unified support system that saw them as whole people.  

What colleges can do 

Trauma-informed ecosystems emerge with intentionality about how institutions design services, train staff, and center student voice. While each campus context is different, there are common strategies that lay the groundwork for this transformation: 

• Provide trauma-informed training campus-wide to help faculty, staff, and leadership recognize signs of distress, respond with empathy, and create consistent cultures of care. 

• Build coordination between departments so students experience a seamless network of support, rather than disconnected services that leave them repeating their stories. 

• Simplify access to basic needs and emergency aid in a way that doesn’t ask students to perform their poverty. This includes offering anonymous or low-barrier options when possible. Ensure information about services is visible, inclusive, and multilingual. 

• Revisit institutional policies through a trauma and equity lens. Policies around attendance, deadlines, academic progress, or financial aid appeals should offer flexibility for students navigating complex life challenges. 

• Create inclusive decision-making structures that elevate student perspectives, especially those of students from disproportionately impacted communities. If possible, offering compensation to students for their time and expertise adds extra value for their contributions. 

• Support staff well-being by acknowledging the emotional labor involved in frontline work. Offer reflective supervision, reasonable caseloads, and wellness resources that are accessible and encouraged.
  

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“When we talk about trauma-informed ecosystems, we’re talking about rethinking the student experience, creating spaces where care is not conditional, where students don’t have to prove they’re struggling to be treated with compassion, and where support is a shared responsibility across the institution.”
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Jessica graduated, but she almost didn’t. Her story, like so many others, reflects the gap between what students need and what institutions often assume. Her experience challenges us to think critically about the systems we’ve inherited and the ones we’re responsible for shaping. When we talk about trauma-informed ecosystems, we’re talking about rethinking the student experience, creating spaces where care is not conditional, where students don’t have to prove they’re struggling to be treated with compassion, and where support is a shared responsibility across the institution. This work requires time, collaboration, and humility. It means slowing down to listen, inviting feedback even when it’s uncomfortable, and staying flexible enough to meet students where they actually are. That’s the real heart of a trauma-informed approach: relationships, trust, and the willingness to respond with care, consistently and without exception. 

Learn more about ATD’s expertise in holistic student supports