The Childhood Trauma Task Force (CTTF) developed a Framework for Trauma-Informed and Responsive Organizations to provide child-serving professionals and organizations with a shared understanding of trauma-informed and responsive (TIR) care as well as guidance on how to implement a TIR approach at all levels of an organization.
While the Framework provides a general overview of the ways organizations can support children and families who have experienced trauma, the way the Framework is applied will vary depending on the specific needs and experiences of certain cohorts of children. As such, the CTTF has developed a curated list of cohort-specific resources consisting of guides, webinars, short documents, and toolkits.
The CTTF will continue to collect relevant resources on this topic. If you have any suggestions or comments, please email Melissa Threadgill, the Ofice of the Child Advocate’s Director of Juvenile Justice Initiatives at Melissa.Threadgill@mass.gov.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Framework for Trauma-Informed and Responsive (TIR) Organizations
The Framework for Trauma-Informed and Responsive Organizations is a 20-page document laying out five Guiding Principles for establishing a Trauma-Informed and Responsive (TIR) approach in an organization as well as five Domains in which the Guiding Principles should be applied.
Children, Youth, and Families of Color
This webinar describes the impact of chronic exposure to racial trauma on Black boys and men and shares how intergenerational trauma affects families and communities of color. It highlights pathways that can be considered to promote healing for boys and men of color who have experienced racial and developmental trauma.
Professionals providing community prevention services can use this guide to implement a TIR approach to their initiatives. The guide focuses on the effects of trauma and social determinants of health on boys and men of color and highlights effective models of TIR community-based prevention efforts.
In this series, NCTSN clinical and research experts address a variety of issues at the intersection of culture and trauma in children and adolescents. Presentations address clinical, organizational, and staff training issues and describe unique challenges faced by specific populations at high risk for traumatic stress.
Behavioral healthcare clinicians and caregivers face unique challenges when working with Latinx youth who have experienced trauma. This webinar takes a nuanced approach to the diversity of Latinx cultures to help professionals use TIR strategies and tools when serving Latinx children and families.
This webinar by the National Latino Behavioral Health Association and SAMHSA focuses on trauma and delivering TIR care to Latinx communities. It reviews strategies for engaging and delivering culturally informed services to Latinx individuals, with a focus on SUDs. Available in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
Immigrant and Refugee Youth
This four-section guide offers information on the needs of refugees and immigrants who might have experienced trauma as well as focuses on developing and implementing a TIR organizational self-assessment. The guide includes tools, tips, and specific examples for organizations to model.
This short paper provides clinicians with ten concrete actions to provide TIR care to refugee and immigrant youth.
This webinar series covers the impact of trauma on children during all phases of their migration journey. Led by the Refugee Trauma and Resilience Center in Boston, the webinars provide best practices for culturally responsive and trauma-informed provision of services.
This 6-page document provides facts about the socioeconomic, cultural, and mental health challenges immigrant youth face as well as concrete strategies organizations can adopt to support them. While the document is intended for schools, it can be used by any child-serving organization who wishes to become TIR.
LGBTQ+ Youth
This learning series offers concrete strategies and recommendations for providers working with LGBTQ+ youth who have experienced trauma. This webinar series discusses how to increase access to services, create a safe environment for care, and work with families and schools.
Professionals working with LGBTQ+ youth will find this two-part guide useful to understanding the benefits of adopting a TIR approach. Part 1 examines the possible traumas LGBTQ+ youth experience, including the ubiquity of victimization and discrimination.
Professionals working with LGBTQ+ youth will find this two-part guide useful to understanding the benefits of adopting a TIR approach. Part 2 focuses on implementing a TIR approach when working with LGBTQ+ youth.
This guide covers a wide range of ways to apply TIR principles to ensure your organization is LGBTQ+ culturally competent. It covers small actions (e.g. making sure posters affirm the identity of clients) and more structural ones (e.g. reviewing policies and procedures to maximize inclusion of LGBTQ+ clients).
Youth in Foster Care
Child welfare professionals will find this 9-session program useful to give foster parents the tools they need to play an active role in supporting children and youth who have experienced trauma. It includes an implementation guide, handouts, PowerPoint slides, a case manager guide, and other practical documents.
Pediatricians can use this AAP guide to support adoptive and foster families by ensuring they can 1) identify traumatized children, 2) educate families about trauma, 3) empower families to use a strength-based approach to recovery.
Child welfare professionals can use this webinar to further their knowledge about diversity-informed practices. The 1h30 webinar presents vignettes to highlight core concepts and how they can be applied to child welfare practice.
This 30-minute video by the Central Massachusetts Child Trauma Center describes how to use the film ReMoved to facilitate conversations with foster parents about what it must be like for children to be removed from their home and enter the foster care system.
Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
Providers working with children can use this training curriculum to increase their knowledge on how to work with children and families who are living with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD) and have experienced trauma. The training consists of a Facilitator Guide and a Participant Manual.
Professionals serving children with IDD can use this guide to implement a TIR approach to their everyday interactions with people with IDD as well as in organizational policies and procedures. The Appendices provide exercises, checklists, and reflection questions to support the implementation process.
Military Families
Mental health providers and other child-serving professionals will find this series useful in understanding the specific challenges children in military families face as well as the cultural barriers to healing from trauma for military families.
Professionals working with military families will find this tip sheet very useful to keep in mind ten key concepts to provide TIR services. This tip sheet includes information on family separation, stigma about mental health care, access to programs, involving peers and civilian providers, and more.
Professionals working with young children in military families will find this Zero-to-Three guide useful to understand situations that military families may be experiencing and how to adopt a strength-based approach to the care you are providing children as well as in your communication with parents.
