Children who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system are a challenging and underserved population. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has developed resources to help juvenile justice professionals understand and provide trauma-focused services to these youth. These resources include tools and materials for building skills and increasing knowledge about childhood trauma to help judges, attorneys, law enforcement, probation officers, frontline residential staff, mental health personnel, and caregivers understand and respond to the needs of traumatized children. In addition to the NCTSN resources highlighted below, Justice System Professionals can learn more about creating trauma-informed Justice Systems in the Trauma-Informed Care section of this website.
Provides an overview for juvenile justice staff on how to work towards creating a trauma-informed juvenile justice residential setting.
Helps programs who work with justice-involved youth better understand the steps to take to recognize and respond to the trauma-related needs of youth, family members, and staff working in the justice system.
Provides judges with useful questions and guidelines to help make decisions based on the emerging scientific findings in the traumatic stress field. These bench cards assist judges and court-appointed professionals doing mental health assessment of children.
Describes how young children, school-age children, and adolescents react to traumatic events and offers suggestions on how parents and caregivers can help and support them.
Defines child traumatic stress. This fact sheet gives an overview of trauma, describes traumatic stress symptoms, and ways children may be impacted.
Provides staff in child-serving systems with best practices for trauma screening. The online courses help child-serving staff identify and support children suffering from traumatic stress as early as possible and connect those in need with effective services.
Is a self-rating tool that walks users through each of the competencies in STS cross-disciplinary version.
Offers child-serving providers information about child neglect and trauma.
Identifies the core competencies that STS-informed supervisors in any discipline should have. This fact sheet defines terms, outlines benchmarks for each competency, and offers supervisors guidance on ways...
Offers guidance to help those working with youth involved in multiple systems (YIMS) and their families to use a traumatic stress perspective and provide trauma-informed care.
Is designed for those working with youth involved in multiple systems using the Crossover Youth Practice Model. This supplement is a brief version of A Trauma-Informed Guide for Working with Youth Involved in Multiple Systems developed specifically for staff...
Helps organizations assess their current practices in the context of serving children and families who have experienced trauma. It is an important part of an organizational transformation process to create trauma-informed organizations.