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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.

Barker, Alex

Individual Affiliate

Alex Barker (They/Them) is a young professional who began their career as a youth peer support specialist at FMRS Health Systems Inc., located in southern West Virginia. Through the agency, Alex joined the NCTSN Youth Task Force, now the Young Adult Collective, and has used their lived experience as a tool to increase the quality of services provided to youth and young adults. Now working in Raleigh, NC as the Outreach Coordinator with the Capital Area Teen Court Program, Alex continues to share their knowledge and experiences inside the NCTSN and beyond. Outside of work, Alex serves on the board of directors for Safe Schools NC, a non-profit dedicated to resourcing teachers passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ youth in their classrooms. Additionally, they have partnered with NC State University on a research initiative addressing the professional development needs of 4-H program staff as they pertain to serving youth identifying in the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, Alex received the Youth Advocate of the Year Rockstar Award from Youth Move National. Alex is currently pursuing their MSW  and plans to use this degree in addressing needed systems changes that will impact service delivery for youth and young adults. 

Location:

Barker, Kristin

Individual Affiliate

Kristin Barker is a licensed clinical social worker and the former Manager of Clinical Operations at Children's Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis. She has expertise in implementing evidence-based, trauma-focused, interventions to youth and their caregivers, overseeing the operations of a mental health outpatient clinic, and providing training to professionals across child-serving sectors. Ms. Barker is a recognized trainer in Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma, the Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit, and the Resource Parent Curriculum. Ms. Barker’s areas of interest include the treatment and assessment of complex trauma, trauma-informed parenting, and supporting the implementation and sustainability of trauma-informed, evidence-based practices in communities and organizations. Ms. Barker is temporarily residing in London, England where she is seeking opportunities to work within, and learn from, the local system of trauma-informed care while staying connected and contributing to the work of the NCTSN. 

Location:
London, England

Barnett, Erin, PhD

Baumstein, Jody

Individual Affiliate - Georgia

Jody was formerly the Director of a School-Based Counseling Program in Atlanta, Georgia. In that position, she served on the steering committee for an NCTSN grant and oversaw the implementation of trauma-informed care training and therapeutic services in local schools. She is now working at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, focusing on child wellness and building resiliency through programming with pediatricians, caregivers, youth, and schools. She remains involved with the NCTSN and is particularly interested in trauma-informed care within healthcare organizations and school settings.

Location:
Atlanta , GA
Work:
(518) 669-6609

Baystate Health

Community Treatment and Services Centers - Category III - Massachusetts
Funding Period:
2009-2012, 2012-2016, 2016-2021, 2021-2026

The Building Resiliency in Young Children (BRYC) program at Baystate Medical Center has the overarching goal of improving access to and quality of trauma-informed services for all children 0-5 years old and their caregivers. BRYC is expanding access to and coordination of trauma-informed early childhood mental health services by providing trauma-informed mental health screening and assessments, evidence-based trauma-informed therapy (Child Parent Psychotherapy and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and psychoeducation groups for foster parents and biological caregivers. BRYC collaborates with existing infant and early childhood systems of care to provide trauma-informed educational opportunities for child serving professionals and clinicians.

Location:
300 Carew Street
Springfield , MA 01104
Staff:

Baystate Medical Center-Dept of Psychiatry

Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers - Category II - Massachusetts
Funding Period:
2021-2026

The Child Advocacy Training and Support Center (CATS) in Baystate Medical Center’s Dept of Psychiatry coordinates and consolidates the vast resources and expertise of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) to support Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in meeting their mission with the primary goal of increasing access to trauma informed services for children and their families. The CATS Center team, in partnership with national experts on CAC service delivery, evidence-based treatment (EBT) trauma curriculum developers, and stakeholders representing each multidisciplinary team (MDT), disseminates trauma informed care (TIC) training across the CAC system. The CATS Center goals are: 1) Establishing a national training center to support CACs in ensuring their MDT members are trauma-informed and have specialized tools, skills, and resources for effective service delivery. 2) Increasing system capacity and competencies of the CAC MDT professionals’ (i.e., medical, mental health, law enforcement, child-welfare, victim advocates) trauma-informed response using a learning collaborative model and specialized curriculum specific to each discipline. 3. Increasing availability of training in EBTs, such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to mental health professionals within CACs. 3) Supporting sustainability of TIC throughout CAC MDTs by serving as a continuing resource for training, consultation, and technical assistance and providing additional training regarding priority areas such as commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking, problem sexual behaviors, screening and engagement, and secondary traumatic stress prevention. 4) Developing and consolidate NCTSN products specifically for CAC service systems such as factsheets and webinars.

Location:
300 Carew Street
Springfield , MA 01199
Staff:

Behavioral Health System Baltimore

Organizational Affiliate - Maryland
Funding Period:
2016-2021

Behavioral Health System Baltimore, Inc. is a nonprofit organization tasked by Baltimore City to perform the function of managing Baltimore City’s behavioral health system—the system of care that addresses emotional health and well-being and provides services for individuals with substance use and mental health disorders. We help guide innovative approaches to prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery for those who are dealing with mental health and substance use disorders to help build healthier individuals, stronger families and safer communities. We do this by influencing policy development through state-level advocacy; raising public health awareness through centered on behavioral health issues; and allocating resources for substance use disorder and mental health services to Baltimore service providers. BHSB’s work with external stakeholders and internal collaborative workgroups organize opportunities that promote learning, advocacy, program implementation and accountability, healing, and courageous conversations to advance trauma-informed care and anti-racism throughout child-serving systems.

Location:
100 S. Charles St., Tower II, 8th Fl
Baltimore , MD 21201
Staff:

Bennett, Frank, PhD

Individual Affiliate - Colorado

Frank Bennett was Director of Children's Services at Aurora Mental Health Center in Aurora, Colorado, for twenty years before retiring in 2006. He served as project director of the NCTSN site at Aurora for five years.  Dr. Bennett continued to be active with the Network, serving on the Network Steering Committee, the Affiliate Advisory Group, and working with the Resource Parent Subcommittee to improve the implementation of the Resource Parent Curriculum.  In addition to his professional experience, Dr. Bennett is a biological, foster, and adoptive parent, providing another view of the systems that serve children who have experienced trauma.

Location:
Denver , CO
Work:
(303) 757-2930

BestSelf Behavioral Health Inc.

Community Treatment and Services Centers - Category III - New York
Funding Period:
2021-2026

BestSelf Behavioral Health, Inc. (BestSelf) is the largest community-based behavioral health organization in Western New York, serving over 41,000 children, youth, and adults in more than 70 locations. Our mission is to provide innovative, evidence-based, accessible, and family-focused behavioral health services to promote health, hope, recovery, and an enhanced quality of life. BestSelf is a trauma-informed agency that provides caring and compassionate patient-centered mental health treatment and medication therapy for those living with behavioral health diagnoses, including: anxiety, bipolar disorder, complex trauma, depression, emotional disorders, family relationship problems, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, self-harming thoughts or behavior, severe emotional disturbances, and schizophrenia. We provide many innovative evidence-based therapies including: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), trauma focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and Seeking Safety. BestSelf provides these evidence-based treatments through a variety of programs including: 12 Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs); 16 school based mental health clinics; 6 pediatric office based mental health clinics; Building Brighter Futures school-based programs to provide social-emotional supports, academic assistance, and enrichment opportunities; and the Child Advocacy Center at BestSelf (CAC). The CAC provides services to sexually and physically abused children and youth. The CAC brings together law officials and medical, mental health, and child protection professionals to help children and their families with a single, child-friendly coordinated response. The CAC’s Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) has representation from law enforcement, district attorneys, child protective services, children’s hospital, mental health, and victim advocacy.

Location:
430 Niagara Street
Buffalo , NY 14202
Website:

Bethany Christian Services, Project Return Home

Organizational Affiliate - Michigan
Funding Period:
2008-2012

Project Return Home expands the reach and impact of Bethany Christian Services’ existing child trauma center to serve urban Grand Rapids and the metropolitan Kent County area of West Central Michigan. The target population is traumatized children aged 3-18 who have been removed from their homes due to child abuse, neglect, or maltreatment, and who live in foster care or other out-of-home placement. Trauma treatment will also be delivered to their parents, most of whom struggle with their own unresolved sources of childhood trauma. The project will adapt/replicate an empirically based trauma-informed treatment model to help foster children achieve four measurable outcomes: 1) reduce behavioral problems extending from childhood trauma; 2) increase the rate and timeliness of child-family reunification; 3) reduce the number of disrupted foster placements; and 4) reduce the rates of recidivism for repeat out-of-home placement of children.

Bethany partners with the Child and Adolescent Traumatic Stress Center of Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, to replicate the trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) model for foster children, and will draw on the resources of its own Child and Family Traumatic Stress Center, which has successfully implemented two other U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-funded clinical models for treating traumatized adopted youth and youth aging out of the foster care system.

Location:
901 Eastern N.E.
Grand Rapids , MI 49501
Staff:

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