La Rabida Children’s Hospital’s Chicago Child Trauma Center (CCTC) serves traumatized children and families living in low-income Black communities on Chicago’s South Side and southern suburbs with trauma assessment and therapy, case management, and trauma screenings and consultation. CCTC’s clinical expertise, staff development, commitment to excellence in care, and institutional knowledge make it an essential resource for children on Chicago’s South Side. CCTC’s goals include serving 300 clients each year, 225 of which will engage in long-term psychotherapy essential to treating complex trauma yet rarely offered. Given the multi-year treatment plan necessary for most clients, we hope to serve at least 700 unique clients over the course of the entire project.
CCTC is one of the only agencies in Chicago that specializes in trauma-focused assessment and therapy for the full range of potentially traumatic events experienced by children. In the past 3 years of service, 79% of clients served identified as African American, 11% as multi-racial, and 9% as Caucasian. CCTC has maintained affiliate status with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) after being funded as a Community Treatment and Services site (CTS). Our emphasis on resiliency and expertise in child trauma place CCTC in a unique position to increase and enhance the services available to traumatized children in the Chicago area and to continue to make valuable contributions to the NCTSN.
Grant funding will enable CCTC to increase delivery of trauma-related services to community referrals—children not involved in the child welfare system—who have high levels of exposure to community violence, complex trauma, and COVID-19 related traumatic separation and grief. It will also assist the center in attaining consultation and support to better serve our clients and integrate into our community to assure we are meeting their needs. CCTC’s goals include (1) increasing our capacity to provide direct evidence-based trauma-focused treatment and case management services to high-needs children in the community who are not involved in the child welfare system; (2) Maintaining education and consultation in EBPs for complex trauma, particularly for those exposed to community violence; (3) developing structured approaches to increase cultural responsivity in treatment and systems processes, working to embed a more robust anti-racist and racial equity lens; (4) better integrating CCTC into the community, building stakeholder trust, gaining and integrating community feedback, and improving client engagement; and (5) expanding collaboration and knowledge sharing with local and national networks in order to improve the assessment and treatment of complex trauma in children.