Stories of Change

Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Providers

The Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Providers Train the Trainer initiative is cultivating a team of trainers to sustain the promotion of trauma-informed practices with early childhood providers in Contra Costa County.

It was developed in collaboration with First 5 of Contra Costa, Community Services Bureau, The Alliance to End Abuse, and WestEd.

The goals of this apprentice training program are to expand awareness, increase knowledge, and develop trauma-informed practices with early childhood providers.

This initiative emphasizes the importance of caring attuned relationships, routines and predictability, self-regulated adults who understand how to reduce triggering and calm young children’s central nervous systems and building skills and capacities in young children and the adults who care for them.

Find Your People By La Krisha Dillard

This fall, I participated as a panelist in the virtual Contra Costa ACEs Network of Care Convening. We came together as 150 practitioners across the county who want to be part of a system of care that is just, healing, and trustworthy. (Check out a recording of the convening here [LINK].) So much of this work is inside-out work, and I’ve built my own toolkit of self-care and emotional support so that I can be who I need to be in showing up for the families I work with. That fall convening really focused on that inner work, which is so important. But there’s a whole world of work we can also do with our colleagues and organizations to build a trauma-informed system of care.

I participated in the Contra Costa First 5 Trauma Apprentice Program along with another member of my organization, Kerry Armstrong, LCSW, who is a Director at The Lynn Center Children and Family Services. As Fellows of the Trauma Apprentice Program, we have done this walk together of learning about and deepening our trauma-informed practices. Kerry and I could bounce ideas off of one another and tap each of our strengths and positioning in the organization to put trauma-informed practices on the radar of our agency’s leadership. 

Click here to read tips on bringing trauma-informed practices to life in your organizations!

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