Building a Trauma Informed System of Care Toolkit

Building a Trauma Informed System of Care Getting Started

Educate Yourself

The first thing you must do is to become educated about ACEs and trauma informed care. When we began this work in 2015, there were far fewer conferences, videos, publications, or tools for learning about ACEs science and trauma informed care as there are today. At this point, it can be overwhelming to sort through the vast available content. To help you on this journey, here are a few trusted sources we have used that we recommend: In Tennessee, the Building Strong Brains initiative over the past few years has focused on changing the culture of Tennessee so that the State’s overarching philosophy, policies, programs, and practices for children, youth, and young adults utilize the latest brain science to prevent and mitigate the impact of ACEs. In an effort to help Tennesseans understand the impact of ACEs, and how they will affect the future economic development and prosperity of the state, the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (TCCY) has guided a state-wide effort known as the Building Strong Brains Program. This program has provided training and grant funding (this toolkit was funded by one of these grants) aimed at developing innovative trauma informed programming and community support in spreading this education. At the time of writing this toolkit, TCCY had trained 833 people through the Building Strong Brains Training for Trainers to prepare participants to train others about ACEs. Participants have subsequently trained 29,000 additional individuals. Dr. Andi Clements and I both became BSB trainers in 2016 during the first round of trainings. If you are interested in the Building Strong Brains Training for Trainers, please fill out a statement of interest 1 to learn when additional Training for Trainers opportunities become available. There is no cost associated with this training and you can contact Jenn Drake-Croft (Jenn.Croft@tn.gov) for more information.

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https://www.tn.gov/content/tn/tccy.html

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