Kennedy Krieger, UMB get $2.9M grant for antiracist, trauma-informed training

Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress (CCFTS) and the University of Maryland School of Social Work received a $2.9 million grant to create the Collective for Antiracist Child and Family Systems (CACFS), a program that will provide support and training in antiracist, anti-oppressive practices to more than 2,000 Maryland service providers working to repair the effects of trauma among Black and Latinx children, youth and families.

The money, provided through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, will be awarded over five years. SAMHSA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

CACFS staff plan to train, educate and provide technical assistance to social workers and mental health clinicians, supervisors, and administrators from at least 40 child- and family-serving organizations and systems, including child welfare agencies. In addition, staff will implement an awareness campaign using social media, video messages, and a website that promote culturally responsive and racially conscious approaches to healing trauma.

Staff also will create a 16-member CACFS Advisory Board to engage parents, family members and youth to develop and oversee CACFS plans. This includes helping organizations increase their readiness for adopting practices, policies and strategic plans that centralize racial equity and healing.

This project will incorporate three race-conscious trauma interventions and work with psychology professors at the Immigration, Critical Race and Cultural Equity (IC-RACE) Lab in Chicago, whose leaders developed two of these interventions.