Building a Trauma Informed System of Care Toolkit

Building a Trauma Informed System of Care Getting Started

Educate Yourself

National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) 1 The NCTSN has a mission to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families, and communities throughout the United States. NCTSN was created to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events. NCTSN has a wealth of resources including fact sheets, videos, a free downloadable toolkit for educators, webinars, in-person learning opportunities, and much more. Many of the printed materials are available in both English and Spanish. The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) 2 TLPI’s mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school. To accomplish this they engage a menu of advocacy strategies including: providing support to schools to become trauma sensitive environments; research and report writing; legislative and administrative advocacy for laws, regulations, and policies that support schools to develop trauma-sensitive environments; coalition building; outreach and education; and limited individual case representation in special education where a child’s traumatic experiences are interfacing with his or her disabilities. One resource we have found most useful for educators is their free download of Helping Traumatized Children to Learn 3 . This free workbook summarizes TLPI’s research from psychology and neurobiology that documents the impact that trauma from exposure to violence can have on children’s learning, behavior, and relationships in school. The report also introduces a tool organized according to six core operational functions of schools that can help any school create a trauma sensitive learning environment for all children.

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https://www.nctsn.org/ https://traumasensitiveschools.org/

https://traumasensitiveschools.org/tlpi-publications/

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