Georgia

Project lnterCSECT will establish a network of therapists who will provide evidence-based treatment services for Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) in Georgia aged 11–17. Additionally, the project will: 1) train Network therapists in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT); 2) strategically identify/develop and disseminate additional evidence-informed intervention components to TF-CBT–trained therapists that will provide the Network with additional tools to best engage and serve CSEC clients (TF-CBT+); and 3) deliver TF-CBT+ to CSEC clients. Each year the number of CSEC youth served will increase as the number of therapists trained in TF-CBT increases, totaling 150 CSEC youth served during the grant period.

The Georgia Child Traumatic Stress Initiative is a partnership between the Stephanie V. Blank Center for Safe and Healthy Children (CSHC) and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Emory University School of Medicine. The objectives during the lifetime of the project are to: 1) provide trauma-informed services, including Trauma­Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), to 63 children and adolescents aged 3–17 in metropolitan Atlanta; 2) offer 12 webinars on mental health topics to child service agencies in the Atlanta community; 3) provide training in TF-CBT and mentoring in application of evidence-based practices to eight groups at three mental health providers that serve child victims of abuse/neglect in a rural and underserved area of north Georgia; and 4) pilot TF-CBT via telemental health technology to 12 traumatized children and their families in a rural and underserved area of north Georgia.