The Center on Child Wellbeing & Trauma has been re-funded in the Massachusetts state budget for FY2023

It is with deep gratitude and appreciation that we share that the Center on Child Wellbeing & Trauma has been re-funded in the Massachusetts state budget at $3.5 million for the coming fiscal year. This means we will be able to continue our work supporting child-serving organizations in Massachusetts in becoming more trauma-informed and responsive with training, coaching, and technical assistance, and significantly expand the number of organizations we can partner with this year.

This fall, we also plan to launch a coaching and training academy on trauma and resilience — more information on that will be forthcoming!

A huge THANK YOU to those who have made this possible, including:
• Our partner, the Office of the Child Advocate
• The Baker-Polito Administration
• The Massachusetts Legislature
• And all our partners and supporters

We also greatly appreciate our partners in this work, including:
• Department of Children and Families
• Family Resource Centers that participated in our Assessment & Coaching Pilot
• Wayside Youth & Family Support Network
• Congregate Care Spring Cohort
• Walker Therapeutic & Educational Programs
• Department of Transitional Assistance
• Department of Housing and Community Development
• Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester
• Rennie Center, the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium, and BRYT (Thriving Minds)
• Marlborough Public Schools
• Worcester Public Schools
• And many others

We are truly grateful for all your support.…

The Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma (CCWT) Executive Director Audrey Smolkin and Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate Director Maria Mossaides recently joined Massachusetts State Senator Harriette Chandler on her WCCA TV show “Beacon Hill Chat” to discuss the center and how a trauma-responsive approach can make a positive difference in children’s lives. Smolkin and Mossaides discuss how the CCWT provides organizations and professionals with trauma-informed and responsive (TIR) resources – available virtually on this website and through in-the-field trainings – to help children thrive and grow into healthy adults. They also talked about the initial successes and positive outcomes the program has seen since its official launch in 2021 and how the center can be a model for addressing childhood trauma in states across the country.…

The Center has launched its first Congregate Care Providers Cohort to help organizations become more trauma-informed and responsive. Five organizations have been assigned to the Spring 2022 cohort. The participating programs have worked with the Center to conduct a Trauma Informed Organizational Assessment and have begun to receive coaching. The Center will be launching a Summer 2022 cohort with a total of eight organizations, as well as a Fall 2022 cohort. Learn more about our Assessment and Coaching expertise.…

In collaboration with Thriving Minds (a partnership with the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, BRYT, and the Massachusetts Mental Health Consortium), the Center is offering a new professional development series on “Trauma-Informed Practices for School Mental Health.” Over the course of five sessions, participants will learn to understand the causes of trauma and identify its symptoms, incorporate trauma-sensitive practices within and outside the classroom, establish systems to collect and use data on effective interventions, and build a trauma-sensitive school culture. All school- and district-based staff (and others with an interest in promoting healing) are welcome to join!

In addition to the professional development series, the Center’s partnership with Thriving Minds is working with school districts and partners to promote and support trauma-responsive and healing-centered practices.…

Since January 2022, the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester (Coalition), in partnership with the Center, has worked with 106 different participants between all three training modes offered. The Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester has held two Foundational Courses and will be launching a third for staff, leadership, and volunteers in the public and private sectors. The Foundational Course provides trauma-informed knowledge and skills to promote racial equity and resilience through presentation, dialogue, opportunities for reflection, racial affinity spaces, identifying learning and practice within and outside the training space, emotional and stress management tools, shared definitions and understanding of key terms, and analysis of local data and information.

Additionally, the Coalition launched a “Supporting Change Agents” series, which is designed to support graduates of the Foundational Course.…

The HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) team at Tufts Children’s Hospital interviewed Audrey Smolkin, executive director of the Center on Child Wellbeing & Trauma, on how the Center came to be, how it addresses the needs of children and families in Massachusetts and the purpose of the Center’s website. Audrey shares, “The mission of all of our work, HOPE, and the Center on Child Wellbeing & Trauma needs to be focused on creating an even playing field where we are really all starting from a position of health and ability to contribute to each other.” Read the HOPE interview.…

…

Welcome to our e-newsletter!

In this issue…

News and updates

…

The Center for Child Wellbeing & Trauma is collaborating with the Departments of Children and Families and Early Education and Care to assemble a cohort offering free trauma-responsive and healing-centered self-assessment and coaching to congregate care organizations.

Congregate care providers interested in becoming part of a cohort and participating in an assessment and coaching exercise with the Center for Child Wellbeing and Trauma, please email us at CCWT@mass.gov.

Download the Flyer

…

In partnership with the Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma, the Worcester Trauma, Resiliency & Racial Equity Training Institute offered a series of opportunities to learn to use trauma-informed knowledge and skills to promote racial equity and resilience in Worcester this winter.

The sessions covered three areas:

1. Foundational Course: This training is for staff, leadership, and volunteers in both public and private sectors interested in the principles of trauma, the trauma of racism, the value of supporting resiliency, and racial equity. The program includes discussion, reflection, breaks, and activities that will help participants apply learning to their everyday work.
2. Supporting Change Agents: This series is an intensive opportunity for those looking to develop specific projects in their community and those interested in exploring being a trauma-informed racial equity facilitator.

…