BCC now offering trauma-informed training to community

Directors, trainers and staff will help community parents, and first responders mirror informed response techniques

With the goal of teaching the community how to utilize the same techniques Board of Child Care staff employ with program participants, BCC is now teaching Trauma Informed Care (TIC) training techniques.

The idea was hatched at BCC’s Eastern Shore campus in Denton, MD. Realizing the community lacked trauma-informed provider training, Karen McGee, BCC’s Director of Operations in Denton, responded by convening a training event June 30 to provide practical information and strategies for our community partners.

“This training was well received by all who attended and really shed light on how trauma can effect everyday life and behaviors,” McGee said. “The takeaway responses that were shared at the end of the training event were a testament to the need for this type of training.”

BCC’s Baltimore campus followed Denton’s lead, offering the training to campus staff, so they in turn could teach members of the Baltimore-based communities they same techniques. TIC is part of the Child Welfare Trauma Training toolkit, from the California Evidence Based Clearinghouse (CEBC).

“What makes this significant is it increases the chances of reunification by teaching what we know to the parents and caregivers,” said BCC President and CEO Laurie Anne Spagnola. “The ultimate goal of all of this is to enhance safety, promote permanency within the homes of the children we serve and keep families together.”

The topics presented will also include emotional competence and using consequences, and new techniques and skills to help prevent and de-escalate crises will be demonstrated and then practiced.

** Editor’s Note: The original version of this report, published Aug. 25, 2016, identified  Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) instead of Trauma Informed Care (TIC). Keywords regrets the error.