Resources (all links open in new windows)

Child Welfare Information Gateway (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
This website connects child welfare and related professionals to comprehensive information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. It features the latest on topics from prevention to permanency, including child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption as well as links and resources related to trauma.

Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
This service of the Office of Head Start provides information and resources on the wide range of concerns related to Head Start and Early Head Start programs. By searching the site with the key word “trauma”, many relevant items are available addressing trauma, types of traumas, crises, and disasters and other trauma-related issues such as program policies that impact the young children and their families served by the Head Start community. These resources include two Head Start Bulletins with special focus on mental health, Bulletins #73 and #80, both of which include articles relevant to trauma.

National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, & Mental Health (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
This technical assistance center is committed to developing comprehensive, accessible, and culturally-relevant responses to the range of trauma-related issues faced by domestic violence survivors and their children; to promoting advocacy that is survivor-defined and rooted in principles of social justice; and to eradicating the social and psychological conditions that contribute to interpersonal abuse and violence across the lifespan. The Center also provides training and consultation on early childhood trauma and exposure to domestic violence, using two curricula designed for mental health clinicians and domestic violence advocates respectively.

National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
The NCTSN works to serves the nation’s traumatized children and their families by raising public awareness of the scope and serious impact of child traumatic stress on the safety and healthy development of America’s children and youth; advancing a broad range of effective services and interventions by creating trauma-informed developmentally and culturally appropriate programs that improve the standard of care; working with established systems of care including the health, mental health, education, law enforcement, child welfare, juvenile justice, and military family service systems to ensure that there is a comprehensive trauma-informed continuum of accessible care; and fostering a community dedicated to collaboration within and beyond the NCTSN to ensure that widely shared knowledge and skills become a sustainable national resource. NCTSN lists members and projects by state that are funded to address trauma — including projects focusing on young children and families; developing the field and providing models for assessment, service delivery, intervention, and workforce development.

Prevent Child Abuse America (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) builds awareness, provides education and inspires hope to everyone involved in the effort to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation’s children. Working with local chapters, PCA America provides leadership to promote and implement prevention efforts at both the national and local levels. With the help of state chapters and concerned individuals PCA America values children, strengthens families and engages communities nationwide.

Safe Start Center (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
The Safe Start Initiative is funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The goal of the Safe Start Initiative is to broaden the knowledge of and promote community investment in evidence-based strategies for reducing the impact of children’s exposure to violence. This site includes access and links to guides and reports, journal articles and books, fact sheets, and other publications related to the impact of children’s exposure to violence and trauma.

The Child Witness to Violence Project (CWVP) (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
A counseling, advocacy, and outreach project that focuses on the growing number of young children who are hidden victims of domestic and community violence and other trauma-related events. The Project also offers training and resources for mental health professionals and other early childhood providers. www.childwitnesstoviolence.org

The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
An organization whose mission is to help individuals, families and communities that have been impacted by trauma and adversity to re-establish a sense of safety and predictability in the world, and to provide them with state-of-the-art therapeutic care as they reclaim, rebuild and renew their lives.

ZERO TO THREE (Opens in new tab) (Opens in new tab)
ZERO TO THREE is a national, nonprofit organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals, policymakers, and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. ZERO TO THREE is home to the Early Head Start National Technical Assistance Center. The organization supports major efforts to address children’s mental health, maltreatment and the impact of trauma, as well as building systems that support young children and their families affected by trauma through policy, research, community development, resource/publication dissemination, as well as training and technical assistance.