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Looking for Adoptions Together or FamilyWorks Together? New name, same us. Here’s why!
Learn more about our federally funded project, Transforming Prince George's County Through Trauma-Informed Care, and inquire to partner with us.
Transforming Prince George’s County through Trauma-informed Care introduces action for community wide intervention that ensures responsiveness to trauma and its impact on the children and families of Prince George’s County. Paths for Families, formerly known as Adoptions Together and FamilyWorks Together, has a successful history of trauma-informed training projects of this scale, including past partnerships with Prince George’s County and a deep connection to the child welfare system since Adoptions Together was founded in 1990.
The year-long initiative will offer a series of conversations, trainings, and coaching that will enhance the understanding of the holistic impact of primary and secondary traumatic experiences for clients, professionals, and the systems in which their organizations operate.
Up to 1600 professionals from up to 11 organizations or groups will receive training to implement systemic change throughout Prince George’s County.
Training cohorts will consist of professionals from various youth serving community-based agencies in Prince George’s County who are committed to becoming more trauma-informed, trauma-responsive, and resilience building in their practice. Current partners include staff and resource parents from the Prince George’s County Department of Social Services, members of the Prince George’s County Homeless Service Partnership, and the Local Behavioral Health Authority.
Paths for Families is currently looking to partner with additional child and family serving agencies in Prince George’s County who might be interested in participating.
The Trauma-Informed Organizational Training consists of three 3-hour sessions delivered to cohorts no larger than 40 participants each. The training model includes three primary areas of focus:
As a result of these areas of focus, participants will gain knowledge at a micro, mezzo, and macro level strengthening their understanding of the complexities of trauma and the impact trauma has on the work they do.
While many organizations have a basic understanding of how trauma impacts their clients and their staff, the Paths for Families model intends to re-introduce these concepts in a way that is explicitly relevant to the specific work of the participants. Understanding trauma in the context of the client, the professional, and the organization provides context for the importance of delivering trauma-responsive services and mitigating the potential impact of vicarious trauma and burnout.
The holistic approach ensures better treatment of clients who have experienced trauma, prevents further trauma from interactions with unprepared systems and resources, and enables front-line professionals to have the tools to prevent and mitigate the impact of vicarious trauma. This reduces burnout and makes employment at trauma-informed organizations more sustainable.
Another key piece of the initiative will be a coaching phase for each cohort as they work towards becoming a trauma-informed, trauma-responsive, resilience building organization. After each cohort’s training sessions have been completed, Paths for Families will provide three 2- hour coaching sessions to deepen the concepts and lessons from the training series. These coaching sessions will include concept review, new concept introduction, as well as case consultation as a group and individually. Coaching allows staff to directly engage with key participants after the training has been completed as they begin to integrate the concepts learned into everyday practice. This transforms knowledge into action through specialized guidance to initiate transfer of learning.
This initiative will culminate with a full-day Trauma-Informed Care Conference on July 31, 2024 that will highlight promising practices and strategies for creating and sustaining a trauma-informed and trauma-responsive network of care in Prince George’s County. The conference will bring together local and national experts and will be open to cohort training participants as well as other professionals and community members.
