Clifford Beers has a respected century-plus tradition of bringing leading-edge mental health solutions to children and families. Today, driven by a trauma-informed approach, Clifford Beers continues to develop and implement community-based systems of care programming in clinic offices, schools, and homes.  Among other things, Clifford Beers offers outpatient care, services for children and their families facing autism or intellectual/developmental disabilities, care coordination that considers the full family dynamic, trauma training for child-serving organizations (schools, camps), and emergency crisis care.  In FY2017, Clifford Beers served over 6,300 children/caregivers and provided professional development training to over 3,300 in Connecticut and beyond.  In 2018, Clifford Beers received the Gold Seal from The Joint Commission, a distinction reserved for those organizations delivering safe, highest-quality quality care.  Clifford Beers also maintains a policy presence and is eager to collaborate with organizations and individuals committed to protecting and expanding funding to support critical human services.  Clifford Beers envisions behavioral health care that provides for truly integated and trauma-informed whole-person/whole-family care to allow children and families to achieve optimal wellness in all categories: physical health, mental health, and social determinants of health.   

The Healing, Recovering, and Empowering Together (HEART) program is based out of the Center for Families and Children at Community Connections in Washington, D.C. HEART’s mission is to improve early access to integrated high quality behavioral health and trauma specific treatment for children, adolescents, and their families, and to disrupt the transmission of intergenerational trauma. Family peers and clinicians will develop and implement creative strategies to provide coordinated services that will allow for integrated child and adult services. HEART utilizes Community Based Intervention (CBI) and Family Team Meetings with trauma-specific evidence-based practices offerings: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for 1:1 child-specific recovery work, Strengthening Families Coping Resources (SFCR) for multi-family group recovery work, and Trauma Recovery and Empowerment (TREM) for adult women’s recovery work.

Kay Connors is a clinical social worker and Instructor at University of Maryland School of Medicine, with specialized expertise in child traumatic stress treatments and infant and early childhood mental health. She is the Executive Director of the Taghi Modarressi Center for Infant Study and direct its Maryland Health Department funded Center of excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. She leads the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate training program, which offers training to diverse pediatric providers (primary care providers, mental health clinicians, school personnel) on infant, toddler, and preschool development and mental health. She is the co-director of the regional site for the Fussy Baby Network through Erikson Institute and oversee local training and dissemination efforts. She oversees the local implementation of HealthySteps, a national evidence based prevention model providing psychosocial support and mental health screening, assessment and treatment to pregnant women and their children after birth through age 3. She is a State designated Master Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Interface Trainer and a National Trainer for Child Parent Psychotherapy, an evidence-based, trauma treatment intervention for youth from birth to age seven. She serves as a clinical consultant for older children, providing telepsychiatry services to adolescent and young adult patients in rural counties in Maryland for adolescents and transitional age youth. Her research portfolio includes funding as a Co-Investigator on a PCORI and NIMH and NIDA funded studies on family interventions for youth with serious mental illness and adolescent brain development. She served as Project Director of a National Child Traumatic Stress Network-funded “Family Informed Trauma Treatment Center” (FITT Center) from 2007-2019.

Alice Conte was the former Director of Trauma Services at Gateway Community Services. She is now Vice President at Children's Educational Services. Alice will continue to be involved with NCTSN activities focusing on expanding evidenced based trauma services in the North Florida Area.