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Trauma Training for Criminal Justice Professionals

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GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation

The GAINS Center offers training that helps educate criminal justice professionals about the impact of trauma and how to develop trauma-informed responses.

Trauma-informed care is an approach used to engage people with histories of trauma. It recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma can play in people’s lives. Trauma-informed criminal justice responses can help to avoid re-traumatizing individuals. This increases safety for all, decreases the chance of an individual returning to criminal behavior, and supports the recovery of justice-involved women and men with serious mental illness. Partnerships across systems can also help link individuals to trauma-informed services and treatment.

Trauma-Informed Response Training

The GAINS Center has developed training for criminal justice professionals to raise awareness about trauma and its effects. “How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses” is a half-day training for criminal justice professionals to:

  • Increase understanding and awareness of the impact of trauma
  • Develop trauma-informed responses
  • Provide strategies for developing and implementing trauma-informed policies

This highly interactive training is specifically tailored to community-based criminal justice professionals, including police officers, community corrections personnel, and court personnel.

Train-the-Trainer

The How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses train-the-trainer event is designed to train participants on the training delivery described, as well as equip them with the skills and resources necessary in order to deliver effective trainings. The objectives of this training event are to:

  • Present the How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses training to participants
  • Discuss and review the design, purpose, objectives, and goals of the How Being Trauma-Informed Improves
  • Criminal Justice System Responses training
  • Introduce, develop, and enhance training, co-training, facilitation, and public speaking skills with participants
  • Help familiarize training participants with the available tools and resources available to them, including:
    • The Trainer Tools available on the trainer website
    • Various noteworthy publications in the trauma field
  • Connect participants with peers for ongoing support, collaboration, and dialogue regarding trauma-informed responses and community-based training opportunities

The participants of the train-the-trainer event are strongly encouraged to be individuals who work in the criminal justice system with some degree of training experience. These individuals should have the capacity to conduct future trainings in their communities, and should be reflective of the target population for the training delivery, as described on the reverse. Encouraged train-the-trainer participants include:

  • Court personnel
  • Law enforcement, including local CIT trainers
  • Community corrections (probation, parole, and pre-trial services officers)
  • Behavioral health professionals who work with justice-involved populations

Search for a trainer in your area or contact the GAINS Center about holding a training.

If you are a trainer, access the Trauma Trainer login.

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