Beginning today, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services will host the two-day fall training conference titled The Many Faces of Trauma at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury. The conference is an opportunity for Island professionals to learn more effective ways to link services and envision new ways to provide integrated services that will support families.

The focus for the conference is trauma, its effects on the individual, the family, and the Island community. No one is immune from trauma. Traumatic events affect our schools, our faith communities, first responders, public safety professionals, the medical community, human service providers — and certainly our families and loved ones.

The goal of the conference — named in honor of John K. Pearce, longtime Community Services medical director who died in October of 2006 — is to help Island professionals understand what trauma is, how the effects of trauma present in different ways across the life span and in the community, the role of substance abuse and trauma associated with domestic violence, sexual abuse, and first responders.

The conference, moderated by Dr. Charles Silberstein, will include presentations, workshops and discussions.

Financial support has been provided through grants from Comcast and The Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation. Full course descriptions and online registration is available online at mvcommunityservices.com.