Surviving the Trenches: The Personal Impact of Code Enforcement

New Webinar - Wed 6/17

Code enforcement isn’t just “checking boxes”—it’s conflict management on someone else’s turf.

The Code Enforcement Officer Safety Foundation (CEOSF) brings you this critical training on peer support and trauma. This is the introductory course.

Code enforcement is front-line work—and it's relentless. Day after day, officers step into conflict, crisis, and community frustration during inspections, complaint calls, difficult conversations, and sometimes unsafe scenes. Pair that exposure with heavy caseloads, public scrutiny, and often nominal support, the stress can accumulate into compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma—showing up as irritability, sleep disruption, numbness, reduced focus, and decision fatigue. Grounded in two decades of research with public safety and human services professionals, this training explains what chronic stress and trauma exposure do to the brain and body, then turns the science into practical strategies you can use immediately. You’ll learn to spot early warning signs in yourself and coworkers, reset your nervous system between tough calls, set boundaries that hold under pressure, and build routines that protect performance and wellbeing. The goal is simple: lower the personal costs of the work and support long-term resilience—while remaining professional, fair, and effective in the field.

This 2-hour training is eligible for 0.2 ICC CEU's or 2.0 CACEO CEU's.

REGISTER: CLICK HERE

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Kirsten R. Lewis, M.Ed., is the president and cofounder of KSL Research, Training & Consultation, LLC. She is also a forensic psychology instructor at Glendale Community College, an approved instructor with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc., and a retired probation officer after 25 years of service with the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department (MCAPD).

Kirsten’s work has since been cited in more than 80 academic peer reviewed journal publications authored by scholars at universities in the United States, Canada, England, Poland, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Turkey, Romania, Pakistan, Australia, and China.

Kirsten conducts a variety of trainings on the topics of traumatic stress, peer support, and employee wellness with human service professionals around the country. She has presented her work at conferences throughout the United States and abroad.