The Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma (CCCT), developed by the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and its partners in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, is a professional development program that builds trauma-informed, healing-centered skills for working with children and families. It provides applied practice for both clinical care and community response.

Professional practice in youth-serving systems requires social-emotional skills and strategies to deliver effective trauma-informed care. The CCCT supports this by integrating provider wellness and structured opportunities to practice these skills as core learning outcomes. Recognizing that different roles require different skills and competencies, the curriculum is intentionally designed to be highly flexible—allowing it to be used across diverse settings and adapted to a variety of training needs throughout the system.

Why The CCCT matters:

• Prepares a confident, skilled, trauma-informed workforce
• Strengthens youth-serving systems across disciplines
• Bridges training to practice with measurable results
• Backed by 14+ years of research and six peer-reviewed studies

For system leaders and funders, the CCCT is a scalable, evidence-based way to prepare a trauma-informed workforce and strengthen implementation of evidence-based treatments.

For practitioners, the CCCT helps them feel more confident, start cases sooner, and sustain trauma-informed practice in complex, emotionally demanding settings.

For cross-sector partners, the CCCT equips professionals across youth-serving systems with common language, skills, and strategies for trauma-informed care.