Affiliate Member Organizations and Individuals

The Dee Norton Lowcounty Children's Center project Implementing Evidence-Based Treatment (EBT) Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Sexual Behavior Problems will increase access to treatment for children and their nonoffending caregivers traumatized by abuse who exhibit or who are at risk for exhibiting sexual behavior problems (SBPs). The goal is to reduce the negative impacts of SBP by increasing the number of direct services provided by clinicians and community partners trained in evidence-supported treatment interventions for 252 children and their nonoffending caregivers. The children and caregivers DNLCC serves come from diverse ethnic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds from Charleston and Berkeley counties. DNLCC, a Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) will implement treatments developed by the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center through a community-based Learning Collaborative. Multidisciplinary partners of the CAC will participate as a Community Change Team (CCT). The center will train mental health professionals; and will provide evidence-based treatment plans, case management, and monitoring for children with SBPs and their families through weekly CAC multidisciplinary team case reviews.

The Children's Crisis Treatment Center (CcTC) provides high-quality, comprehensive mental health services to Philadelphia's neediest children and families. The center assists children in reaching their full potential within their homes, schools, and communities. The services—tailored to meet the needs of each child and provided in a culturally sensitive environment—address the effects of abuse, neglect, trauma, and other challenges to early childhood development. CcTC offers an array of center- and community-based programs/services including a Preschool Partial Hospitalization Program, Trauma Assistance Program, Sexual Trauma Treatment Program, West African Refugee Assistance Program (Project Tamaa), Outpatient Program, Filial Therapy Program, Behavioral Health and Rehabilitation Services, School-Based Behavioral Health Services, Intensive Case Management, Emotional Support Classrooms, and a Summer Therapeutic Enrichment Program.

Established in 2003 at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the Indian Country Child Trauma Center (ICCTC) develops culturally appropriate interventions to improve treatment and services for children and adolescents in Indian Country who have experienced traumatic events. The ICCTC develops trauma-related treatment protocols based on current evidence-based models that have been adapted for use with Native populations; provides training in the protocols and disseminates the developed materials throughout Indian Country; and provides treatment providers with resources to intervene with Native children and their families exposed to various types of trauma. The center uses three evidence-based treatment protocols to serve its clients: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Treatment for Children with Sexual Behavior Problems (CSBP), and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).

Nationwide Children's Hospital (NCH), the largest provider of mental health services to children and adolescents in central Ohio, will create a program [WB2]for children and adolescents who have experienced severe psychiatric disorders and complex trauma. A trauma-informed service system will be developed, which will enable more youth in the target population to receive evidence-based treatment. Goals are to: 1) provide training and technical support in trauma-informed services and evidence-based treatment to 125 administrators and providers from ten child and family servicing agencies; 2) serve 675 youth/families (including a large number of Medicaid clients and African American families), implementing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) mediation treatment, and care management; 3) find local resources to assist in securing the region's commitment to implementing these practices; and 4) systematically study the need for cultural adaptations to these treatment approaches and implement these adaptations if warranted.

The Cullen Center for Children, Adolescents, and Families provides field-tested and evidence-based, multisensory, trauma-focused therapies to help traumatized youth and their families reduce trauma symptoms, maximize their daily functioning, and restore their abilities to develop and enjoy healthy interpersonal relationships. Serving northwest Ohio, the center offers clinic-based services for youth and families exposed to any type of trauma including community violence, child abuse, traumatic loss, serious illness and injuries, and witnessing domestic violence. Through an outreach program, the center serves youth in the juvenile justice system who have been exposed to trauma and charged with domestic violence. An additional outreach program, funded through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, provides assessment and trauma-focused treatment to families with infants and young children who are exposed to domestic violence. Through its educational, advocacy, and abuse-prevention work, the center helps develop the community's capacity to respond to the needs of children and families exposed to trauma.

Consumers, families, and survivors work in partnership with the center—offering their input at all phases of planning, program development, service provision, evaluation, and community advocacy. Training, support, and other resources are shared with clinical professionals nationwide, so that youth and families exposed to trauma can access evidence-based, trauma-focused services locally, across Ohio, and in other regions of the United States.

Parsons Child and Family Center (PCFC) provides treatment services to children and adolescents in northeastern New York State. The Parsons treatment continuum includes residential and foster care, outreach to schools and day care centers, and mental health and prevention services for children who have been physically and sexually abused, and/or exposed to domestic and community violence. Now refunded, PCFC will establish the HEROES Project (Healing with Emotional Resilience, Opportunities, and Enduring Supports) to engage New York practitioners to develop and implement integrated services with trauma-informed and resiliency-focused strategies that are matched to the resources, risks, and cultural heritage of children and families referred to residential treatment, foster family, and home-based child welfare, as well as to affiliated mental health programs. The HEROES Project will fill critical gaps that often lead to fragmented and ineffective services. Goals include: 1) fostering enduring emotionally supportive relationships that protect children from abuse and neglect, and that help children resume healthy growth and skill development; 2) increasing and maintaining the number of child welfare practitioners in the region utilizing trauma-informed and resiliency-focused interventions; and 3) fostering skills and procedures that mitigate against the consequences of vicarious trauma that is related to working with children and family members who suffer from traumatic life experiences.

Community PARTNERS (Prevention of Adverse Reactions to Negative Events and Related Stress) at St. John's University developed and sustains a community-wide network of providers implementing trauma-informed, evidence-based services. Primary care personnel provide these services to underserved, inner-city traumatized children throughout Queens and eastern Brooklyn, New York. Each year, more than 29,000 children are screened and more than 1,500 abused and/or bereaved children receive assessment and treatment services. The majority of these children are Latino, African American, Caribbean American, or Asian.

Community PARTNERS worked with members of the local community and NCTSN to 1) adapt screening, assessment, and treatment procedures and components to be culturally informed and language accessible; 2) train pediatrics staff and community providers to screen and refer children for child sexual abuse (CSA), child physical abuse (CPA), and traumatic bereavement (TB); 3) train mental health staff to provide evidence-based, culturally informed assessments and treatment of children exposed to CSA, CPA, and TB; 4) identify leadership staff of the mental health clinics who then inform, promote, and sustain the program; and 5) extend the training on and implementation of trauma-informed, evidence-based services beyond Community PARTNERS into the Queens and eastern Brooklyn communities.

In 2007, the program expanded to include a second site at the Child Abuse Program at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk, Virginia. The CHKD site is implementing the project with military families. This collaboration allows the NCTSN to gain information on working with traumatized children from military families, and provides the opportunity for creating collaborations among trauma providers and military service providers (e.g., Family Advocacy Program, Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Naval Criminal Investigative Services). Finally, given the mobile nature of military family life, the collaboration will help provide additional information on methods of adapting the evidence-based services to improve access among military children (e.g., cross-site trainings or improved continuity of care among service providers at different commands).

The Center for Trauma Program Innovation at the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services (JBFCS) develops, improves, and disseminates trauma-focused assessment and treatment services for traumatized children and adults, with special emphasis on those from low-income and racially diverse neighborhoods who have been exposed to interpersonal and community violence, and present with both acute and chronic traumatic stress consequences.

The center builds the evidence base for promising treatments for trauma in collaboration with other NCTSN member sites, as well as with JBFCS programs. It works to build the capacity of organizations to provide best practices in assessing and treating trauma, and to field-test trauma services. Working with the New York City mental health, child welfare, and educational systems, the center enhances the ability of professionals within these systems to provide trauma-informed services to the city's children; and reaches out to businesses and community organizations to provide guidance on workplace psychological preparedness, active coping, and crisis intervention.

Originally founded as an orphanage, the Andrus Children's Center is a treatment, education, and research facility that serves families and children through campus-based programs, community-based initiatives, and mental health programs. The use of the Sanctuary Model of trauma-informed residential care is a key feature of Andrus's work. Andrus joined the NCTSN as a member of the Children's Trauma Consoritum of Westchester, a collaborative with the Center for Preventive Psychiatry, Fordham University's Children's First, and the Westchester Medical Center's Behavioral Health Center.

North Shore University Hospital's Adolescent Trauma Treatment Development Center (ATTDC) helps alleviate the impact of traumatic stress on adolescents. The center develops, adapts, and disseminates Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS), its primary group intervention method for adolescents. ATTDC also created an Adolescent Traumatic Stress Resource Center for professionals, teens, and families, which includes the development of web-based resources for these audiences. An additional priority for ATTDC is collaborating with Network members to create a treatment model based on Psychological First Aid for the state health system to better respond to the mental health needs of children and families after disasters or terrorist attacks.