For more than 30 years, researchers from the REACH Institute have developed several evidence-based programs that focus on improving the lives of children and families. CRF will adapt, widely implement and disseminate four of the evidence-based parenting interventions, all of which have been rigorously tested and shown to be effective at strengthening resilience among traumatized families. These interventions are: Adaptive Parenting Tools (previously known as After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools)/ADAPT for first responders, refugee/immigrant families, and military families; Resilient Parenting for Bereaved Families, New Beginnings for high-conflict divorce families, and Bridges for Latinx and African-American inner-city parents. Program developers Drs. Abigail Gewirtz, Nancy Gonzales, Armando Pina, Sharlene Wolchik, and Irwin Sandler, will work closely with communities across the nation to widely disseminate online, self-directed versions of these parenting EBPs. Over the next five years, these interventions aim to serve more than 35,000 people and specifically target isolated families in transition, such as: • refugee and immigrant families • those exposed to the death of a parent • community violence • parental wartime deployment • high-conflict divorce • first responder parents The REACH Institute is thrilled to house the longstanding work of the Center for Resilient Families and its dedication to addressing the public health impact of childhood trauma through a family context, providing education, and training for parents.

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.

The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPTS) addresses health-related traumas in the lives of children and families. Tens of millions of children in the US each year face injury, illness, pain, and frightening treatment experiences. Medical traumatic stress includes child and family responses to these medical events.  The Center’s mission is to reduce medical traumatic stress by promoting trauma-informed health care and ensuring that health care providers are knowledgeable and skilled in trauma-informed care with diverse youth and their families. The Center develops and disseminates practical evidence-based tools that can be integrated into pediatric medical care.  CPTS is unique in the Network in its core focus on secondary and tertiary health care settings, i.e., hospitals, emergency departments, and subspecialty medical care.

CPTS’ work in the NCTSN focuses on three goals / key constituencies: 1) Helping health care providers and health care systems  improve outcomes for children and families at risk for medical traumatic stress by promoting evidence-based trauma-informed health care services. 2) Helping mental health and psychosocial providers become proficient in evidence-based interventions for ill and injured children and their families. and 3) Ensuring that children and families across the US have access to evidence-based resources and interventions that address the impact of medical traumatic stress for children’s health and wellbeing.  The Center promotes awareness of medical traumatic stress and trauma-informed pediatric health care via www.HealthCareToolbox.org. 

The Office of Community Health, Engagement, and Resiliency (OCHER) in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University works in partnership with community members and organizations to address social issues and promote resiliency among populations of the Southwest region of the U.S. There is a pressing need for training and education on early intervention, mental health promotion, and prevention of long-term consequences of childhood trauma given (a) high rates of poverty, (b) the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and (c) documented gaps in programs addressing family resilience. There are several unique challenges surrounding trauma treatment and service delivery in systematically marginalized communities, including historical trauma leading to mistrust of medical and mental health professionals, absence of culturally appropriate trauma prevention and intervention services, and lack of access to treatment in rural areas. Due to their comprehensive understanding of barriers to services, and the sociocultural context of underserved populations, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are a promising strategy for the delivery of health and mental health services, especially among Black, American Indian, and Latinx populations. OCHER works to build on the existing potential of CHWs by adapting evidence-based trauma treatments and co-developing trauma training in partnership with the community, with an emphasis on cultural relevance, appropriateness, effectiveness, and sustainability. With technical assistance from OCHER, CHWs can take existing, technical health information, and culturally and linguistically tailor it to the intended community. Through this work, OCHER builds resiliency among CHWs through specialized training, informational webinars, a trauma and resilience toolkit, and a CHW certificate program centering on healing and resilience from trauma.