Being Trauma Aware

Developing much needed foundational on-line learning for front line service providers around awareness of childhood trauma and maltreatment.

Background:
In May 2015, after extensive proposal work and collaboration with the Alberta Ministries of Health, Children’s Services, Education and Justice & Solicitor General, the University of Calgary, the Zebra Child Protection Centre, the Palix foundation, the Canadian Mental Health association, and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse were granted nearly $8500,000 by the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop and disseminate a web-based on-line learning program that will provide front-line service providers with fundamental, consistent, evidence-based, specialized trauma-informed awareness to better support children, youth and families impacted by trauma.

Over several months, these partnerships informed and developed content with the assistance of a curriculum designer in an effort to provide a foundational awareness of the issues around childhood maltreatment and trauma. This learning is to be considered an entry level overview/refresher of this topic that will provide learners with the background and basics to pursue further detailed learning in this area. At this time, ‘Being Trauma Aware: Making a difference in the lives of children and youth’ is anticipated to be the initial training ‘rung’ in the provincial training model that is currently under development within the Ministry of Children’s Services.

Training Description:
The learning, titled ‘Being Trauma Aware: Making a difference in the lives of children and youth’ can be done in one sitting, or can be broken up in to sections if the learner chooses. There is also opportunity for the learning to be done in a group setting, and a facilitator’s guide is available should this be the chosen method of learning. A certificate of completion will be granted to each learner that completes the learning. The training is comprised of the following 5 modules:

Module 1 - Childhood Maltreatment and Trauma
Module 2 - Trauma and its Impact on Brain Development
Module 3 - Impacts of Trauma
Module 4 - Trauma Informed Practice
Module 5 - Building the Foundation for Resilience

An extremely talented and experienced production company and evaluation team are currently working together to ensure that the training will be delivered in an on-line format that will be engaging, relevant and valuable for the learners.

Making a difference in the lives of children and youth

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