The Secondary Traumatic Stress Innovations and Solutions Center (STS-ISC) is housed at the University of Kentucky Center on Trauma and Children. The STS-ISC will provide workforce development and protection assistance to NCTSN centers, and other child-serving sites to address the impact of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) on trauma professionals so they can provide effective and quality care to children with traumatic stress conditions. This STS-ISC will support wide scale dissemination and implementation of existing and to be developed evidence-informed intervention products to address STS, and expand the application of these interventions to a new population, resource parents, who have high levels of untreated STS. This will be accomplished via the following activities: 1) Implementing workforce development and protection initiatives to create STS informed workplaces by developing an organizational change package and implementing data driven, organizational STS change processes; 2) Increasing supervisors’ abilities to serve as STS change agents and boundary spanners by creating training and assessment strategies; 3) Providing professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to manage STS using evidence-based interventions and an advanced, web-based, STS curriculum.; 4) Providing resource parents with the skills needed to manage STS by creating a targeted training curriculum; and 5) evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions on STS at the organizational and individual level. A full evaluation protocol including process and outcome measures of performance is fully integrated into the work of the center. The project will provide, direct, intensive training and support to 1040 professionals, but will create publically available, free tools and resources available that are accessible to an unlimited number of people in the larger, global community of trauma workers and resource parents.
Network Members
This listing of NCTSN members includes current grantees as well as NCTSN Affiliates, former grantees who have maintained their ties to the Network.
University of Kentucky Secondary Traumatic Stress Innovation and Solution Center
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Baltimore-Network of Early Services Transformation (B-NEST) will strive to prevent and support recovery from traumatic stress in very young children through 1.) collaborative care and integration of early childhood trauma prevention, detection and intervention in pediatric primary care, 2.) evidence-based early childhood trauma interventions, and 3.) partnership with families, community elders and cross sector providers to raise awareness and prevent and respond to symptoms of traumatic stress in children ages 0-5 and their families in Baltimore City. We will implement HealthySteps in the University of Maryland Medical Center’s pediatric primary care program and innovative trauma screening, education and attachment-based, developmental guidance tools. We provide two-generational, evidence-based trauma treatment (Child Parent Psychotherapy, TF-CBT) and attachment-based and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) parent education interventions (Attachment Vitamins, ACE Interface). By applying implementation science strategies and creating interprofessional training, we will increase the primary care sites capacities and future workforces to provide child and family traumatic stress resources and implement trauma informed practices in the primary care setting through partnerships with NCTSN Category II Centers (Child Trauma Research Program, Family Informed Trauma Treatment Center, Pediatric Integrated Care Collaborative and NCTSN Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma). In partnership with local grandparents, our community health worker and community programs will increase community engagement and access to family education and public awareness through community-based, peer-led engagement interventions and workshops to promote social and racial inequities in health promotion.
University of Maryland, Baltimore, Family Informed Trauma Treatment (FITT) Center
Family Informed Trauma Treatment (FITT) Center (a National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI) - Treatment and Service Adaptation (TSA) Center comprised of team members from the University of Maryland Schools of Medicine (UMSOM) and School of Social Work (UMSSW) and the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute (CCFTS)) will use a multi-tiered, ecological approach to increase access to and impact of family interventions, share power and decision making with all stakeholders, and further advance trauma- and resilience-informed resources needed to address the complex of needs of families Over the past 9 years, The FITT team has advanced scientific discoveries, clinical innovation and dissemination efforts in trauma responsive family interventions by elevating family voices and strengthening the role of families in recovery from child traumatic stress by providing access to resources and family interventions. FITT interventions are delivered in clinics, homes, and communities, or are embedded in systems (e.g. interpersonal violence (IPV), drug courts, schools and social services) and are designed to be flexible, attuned to families’ readiness for change and safety needs. FITT Interventions include Strengthening Families Coping Resources (SFCR), Trauma Adapted-Family Connections (TAFC) and Family Assessment of Needs and Strengths (FANS). In addition to these clinical interventions, the FITT Center will led Breakthrough Series Collaboratives and the development of peer to peer interventions (SFCR Peer to Peer Model) and training resources (Climbing Out of Poverty) as well as disseminate NCTSN products in multiple workforce initiatives in universities and across the child and families services to increase capacity to address the needs of families who experience chronic trauma related to poverty and discrimination.
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Lifeline for Kids
The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Lifeline for Kids, formerly the Child Trauma Training Center (CTTC), was developed by the Department of Psychiatry to improve identification of trauma, to increase trauma-sensitive care, and to increase access to evidence-based, trauma-focused treatment for at-risk and underserved children and youth through age 18 throughout Massachusetts — including court-involved youth and youth in military families. During the grant period CTTC: 1) trained over 30,000 child-serving professionals in trauma-sensitive care; 2) reached approximately 450,000 children/youth with trauma-informed services; and 3) provided TF-CBT to more than 4500 children/youth. Additionally, the CTTC created a centralized referral system that includes a network of agencies with documented training in evidence-based trauma treatment. Along with providing trauma-informed training, the CTTC will offer training for first responders (e.g., police) in trauma-sensitive practices, and disseminated culturally competent trauma screening tools to pediatricians, juvenile courts, and schools.
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School-Department of Psychiatry
The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Department of Psychiatry proposes to establish the Resilience Through Relationships Center aimed at closing a critical gap: educating professionals and caregivers to promote resilience through caregiving relationships in order to respond to disrupted caregiving due to parental substance misuse, parental mental health challenges, and child neglect. The Resilience Through Relationships Center’s target population includes youth ages 0 to 21 impacted by disrupted caregiving, as well those intersecting with youth impacted by disrupted caregiving: medical professionals, MH professionals, substance use disorders counselors, and caregivers, including foster parents and parents in recovery. The Resilience Through Relationships Center will be housed within the existing UMass Chan Medical School's Lifeline For Kids. Currently, there is no national center that houses the body of expertise, training, and products to promote safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNR) and address disrupted caregiving. Although we know it is the critical component of TIC and EBTs, there is a lack of training resources on attachment and caregiver support. Expanding on established infrastructure and partnerships, our proposed Resilience Through Relationships Center, with its team of national experts, seeks to shift this paradigm.
University of Minnesota
The Collaborative for Resilient Kids and Families in Minnesota is a partnership between The University of Minnesota School of Social Work, Watercourse Counseling Center, Somali American Parents Association, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio, Minneapolis Public Schools, and Boston Children's Hospital Trauma and Community Resilience Center. This collaboration aims to provide trauma-responsive, culturally, and linguistically relevant mental health support to East African and Latinx children, youth, and their families in Minneapolis. Specifically, the project objectives include (1) engaging Latinx and East African communities in trauma-responsive mental health services at all services levels; (2) improving psychosocial outcomes for East African and Latinx children attending MPS; (3) increasing capacity in Minnesota to address refugee and immigrant trauma that reflects cultural needs; and (4) utilizing outcome evaluation data to increase support and sustainability for the model statewide.
University of Missouri Columbia
The overarching goal of the Central Missouri- Child Trauma Initiative (CM-CTI) is to provide, and increase access to, trauma-focused, evidence-based practices (EBPs) for trauma-exposed children (ages 0-18) and their families throughout central Missouri. Our work is housed at the University of Missouri School of Medicine Psychiatry Department, with collaborators from the University of Missouri- St. Louis. Specific aims of the CM-CTI project are to: 1) increase children’s access to three leading trauma-focused, EBPs: Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Trauma and Grief Component Therapy (TGCT), and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT); 2) significantly mitigate children’s trauma-related symptoms by post treatment as well as reduce trauma symptoms among caregivers receiving CPP. 3) Build a sustainable child trauma workforce in central MO by hosting Learning Total Collaboratives (LCs) for each of these EBPs (i.e., CPP, TGCT, and TF-CBT) for mental health professionals). Our current work also includes the SOAR (System Offering Actions for Resilience in Early Childhood) project, which is committed to building community awareness and developing programs to promote the social-emotional wellness of children age 0-8 and their families in Boone County. Our focus is on early child wellness, universal developmental screening, information/referral, workforce development and treatment services. As a Center of Excellence in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health we provide a continuum of services and supports and partner to create a collaborative system that promotes social emotional well-being of young children and their families.
University of Missouri St Louis-Project ASSIST
The University of Missouri-St. Louis houses Children's Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis, an accredited Child Advocacy Center embedded within a university. As a long time member of NCTSN, our site focuses on direct service delivery of trauma informed forensic and clinical care as well as workforce development. Our current Category II project, Project ASSIST (Access, Skills and Support for Implementation Science in Trauma-informed Training) will broaden access to trauma-informed care for youth by increasing child-serving professionals' access to competent trauma-informed trainers. ASSIST will support and sustain trainers by improving their training skills and increasing their access to resources. A primary component of Project ASSIST will be to implement Trainer Enhancement Cohorts aimed at improving trainers' skills with adult learning principles, expanding their pedagogical and online training strategies, integrating a DEI lens throughout their trainings and preventing secondary traumatic stress in their learners. ASSIST will host several Communities of Practice, including one specifically aimed at mentoring trainers from underrepresented minorities and those with lived experiences. We will continue to train facilitators in FORECAST problem based learning simulations by hosting learning collaboratives for teams across the country. Additionally, ASSIST will develop a Simulation Studio to convene and collaborate with others interested in creating and distributing additional problem based learning simulations relevant to the child-serving workforce. Finally, ASSIST will host a Resource Repository for trainers and a Trainer Access Map for organizations seeking trainers in trauma-informed models and practices.
University of Montana National Native Children's Trauma Center
The NNCTC will pursue two goals: 1. Provide culturally centered, evidence-based, trauma-informed training and technical assistance (TTA) along the full spectrum of needs/readiness in Tribal communities and across all types of Tribal child-serving systems; and 2. Enhance our center infrastructure to increase scale of training/education dissemination, to fill gaps in product offerings, to broaden access to resources, and to promote data-driven program improvements. Our project's population of focus consists of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children and youth at a national level, both in Tribal reservation communities and in urban areas. This population is disproportionately affected by trauma exposure and disproportionately lacking in access to effective mental health services. Our project seeks to address these disproportions by supporting youth-serving agencies in Tribal communities as they troubleshoot their resource limitations. Since the time of our initial funding as a Category II NCTSN TSA Center in 2007, we have developed numerous trauma-focused interventions and products for tribal communities, including an array of foundational trainings, culturally adapted clinical interventions, and non- clinical curricula enabling wide-scale dissemination of trauma supports.