Child Welfare Training Academy of Iowa

Case Study: Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) dissemination for child serving agency’s in the state of Iowa.

In early 2009, The Midwest Trauma Services Network (MTSN) was established at the behest of Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin of Iowa and Senator Tom Fortenberry of Nebraska through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The goal was to deliver Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) training across Iowa and Nebraska. As MTSN began to deliver the agreed upon services, its utility quickly came to the attention of The Coalition for Family & Children’s Services in Iowa (The Coalition). As a result, The Coalition began a negotiation for trainings. This relationship has facilitated trainings that have been well received, resulting in a collaborative that has spanned six years and has ongoing operations as described below.

Objective: To deliver a series of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) trainings across the state of Iowa to all agencies that serve children and that operate in contract with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for child welfare services.

In 2010, MTSN began a contract to deliver trainings across the state, as organized and logistically facilitated, by the Child Welfare Provider Training Academy (CWPTA), a program of The Coalition for Family & Children’s Services in Iowa. The initial trainings resulted in requests for more advanced training for frontline staff working with children.
As MTSN worked with The Coalition to determine content and need, it became clear that the complexity of the science, specifically the neurophysiological aspects of trauma exposure from a developmental context, demanded a more intensive training approach. Through the development of this approach, the team discovered that the ability to translate the research and data to experience on the floor was problematic for many reasons.

1.   Staff turnover in social services is high.
2.   Frontline staff are typically younger and less educated.
3.   Frontline staff often come with their own unresolved issues.
4.   Children’s problematic behavior is overwhelmingly seen in a very black and white way when designing responses, which conflicts with the emerging developmental and neurobiological science best practices.
5.   This system of care is in constant flux programmatically.
6.   Many staff are exposed to and affected by secondary trauma and vicarious trauma, contributing to burnout.

Solution: The Iowa DHHS, CWPTA, and The Coalition looked at the training series that MTSN had for previous contracts around the country. Through this field work experience and adapting to the needs of the client, the team decided to build a trainer network and the The CWPTA Understanding Trauma program was created. The structure consisted of six levels, those levels required 42 hours of training to become a facilitator for each level. Level 1 to be achieved before level 2 could be started, etc. The first round of trainers submitted resumes and interviewed to be part of the training group. The group attended a six hour orientation to trauma multiple times, attended a slide by slide round table discussion of the presentation, co-presented segments of the six hour orientation twice, and then presented the whole six hour orientation 2 times under the supervision of the MTSN. This model of training was meant to maintain fidelity in first generation presenters and resulted in 11 of the original 20 completing the first year. Those 11 could deliver the orientation inside of their own organizations and to other local community organizations that were interested in TIC concepts. Year two saw a similar application process and the original 11 went on to a second round referred to as level 2, another six hour training focused on the neurobiological effects of trauma on children and the caregivers stress inoculation, self-care, and safety planning in environments of intense emotional labor. Year three replicated years one and two. By this time, most agencies either had a TIC facilitator or had access to one that could deliver 12 hours of TIC evidence-based training that was exceptionally relevant to frontline workers.

Result: As of May 2022, 5 facilitators have completed all six levels of the The CWPTA Understanding Trauma program and can facilitate the training in it’s entirety to others. The training is being used across the state of Iowa in facilities that have group home or Psychiatric Medical Institution for Children (PMIC) level care. More than 20 facilitators are delivering orientations across the state and requests for facilitators continues.

Iowa Kidsnet

MTSN worked with Iowa Kidsnet by providing trainings, supervision, and staff support.

Agencies we've helped through Iowa Kidsnet include:

Network Agencies

MTSN provides services to education, mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, law enforcement, state-wide behavioral health providers, and disaster systems.

Network Clients

MTSN works with a diverse range of clients, including those with mental health, substance abuse, and behavioral concerns, sex offenders, and youth in residential or home placement treatment programs as referred by mental health, juvenile justice, child welfare and/or education systems.

Nationwide clients MTSN has worked with from 2011-2018:

Family Resources in Davenport, IA
Psychology Department- University of South Dakota
Juvenile Court Services (Statewide JCO and Liaison Officer Conferences)
Quakerdale Youth Shelter
Child Welfare Provider Training Academy (CWPTA)
Four Oaks
Youth Emergency Services & Shelter (YESS) in Des Moines, IA
Cornerstone Recovery
Young House Family Services
The Iowa Judges Conference
Des Moines Community School District
Hillcrest Family Services
Sioux City Public Schools
Children and Families of Iowa (CFI)
Iowa Summit on Justice & Disparities
Northwest Area Education Association (AEA)
Boys and Girls Home and Family Services
Lutheran Services of Iowa (LSI)
Morningside University
Junior League of Sioux City
Boys Town
North East Nebraska Juvenile Justice Center
Forest Ridge Youth Services
Iowa Department of Public Health
First Resources Corporation
Central Florida Behavioral Health Network
The Home for Little Wanderers (HFLW) in Boston, MA
Crisis Center of Tampa Bay
Child in Hand, Haiti
Western Iowa Tech Community College
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services- The Division of Public Health
Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative in Nebraska
San Bernardino Department of Public Health
The Public Health Division of Sonoma County, CA
Tulalip Tribes of Washington
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
Omaha Tribe of Nebraska
The University of Northern Iowa
Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) Institute
National Center for Disaster and Terrorism
Valley of the Moon Children's Center in Sonoma County, CA
Foster and Adoptive Coalition of Sonoma County
Voices for Children
North Iowa Trauma Initiative (NITI)
Keystone Area Education Agency (AEA) in Iowa
Great Prairie Area Education Agency (AEA) in Iowa
UnityPoint Health- Quad Cities