The International Trauma Center, formerly the Center for Trauma Psychology, has served trauma and violence exposed youth and adolescent populations since 1995.
History
Beginning in Boston, in partnership with the nonprofit Boston Children’s Foundation (www.Bostoncf.org), as a center funded by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health to respond to psychological trauma in the Boston schools and their communities, the International Trauma Center has since provided trauma informed interventions in 18 States and 10 countries worldwide.
The International Trauma Center began collaborating with Boston affiliates in 1995 and to this day we are still responsible for the development and management of School-Based and Community-Based critical incident response networks working in close collaboration with the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, the Boston Police Department, Boston Emergency Medical Services, the Boston Housing Authority, the Superintendent of Public Schools, the Division of Medical Assistance and State Legislators.
Between 1995 and 2000 The International Trauma Center built a trauma response network of over 3,000 community based responders and trained and supervised clinical team leaders in school/community based trauma intervention and quality management of traumatic incident interventions, aftercare and intervention outcomes. Working closely with the Mayor’s Director of Neighborhood Services, Director of Strategic Planning, and Director of Finance, The International Trauma Center developed policy and programming to maintain strategic trauma focused intervention initiatives and community engagement for the advancement of youth and adolescent violence prevention and wellness programs for the City of Boston.
The International Trauma Center’s work in Boston led to engagements with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health & Human Services (EOHHS) -Department of Mental Health and Department of Youth Services where The International Trauma Centertook the lead as the trauma informed care consultant for the State Wide Task Force for Risk Reduction and the Prevention of Suicide in the 400 twenty four hour residential facilities for youth managed by the state.
The International Trauma Center’s relationship with EOHHS evolved into work as the Technical Advisor to the Commissioner of Mental Health. ITC, working closely with the Commissioner and her staff, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, designed and implemented school and community based suicide, homicide, targeted aggression and bullying prevention protocols, which lead to the evaluation, and bringing to scale of promising practice protocols of resiliency-based interventions and prevention programs for at risk children and youth in the state of Massachusetts.
The International Trauma Center was further engaged by the U.S. Department of Education-Office of Primary and Secondary Education on the design, development and implementation of district-based templates providing school preparedness and crisis response and recovery protocols for the United States Public School system consulting to the Deputy Undersecretary-Elementary Schools & Director of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program and the Center for Disease Control Liaison on best Practice Programs for Preparedness, Crisis Response Planning and Recovery Post Traumatic Incidents in schools and their communities.
Between 1999 and 2014 The International Trauma Center’s engagement with public and private sector social enterprises has evolved into consultancy as a primary developer, interventionist and evaluator of trauma informed care interventions and service delivery for youth exposed to large scale trauma and violence.
The International Trauma Center was founded in 1995 by Robert D. Macy, PhD, an internationally recognized trauma psychologist and pioneer in community based trauma focused interventions. The International Trauma Center creates and implements evidence based, trauma informed care (TIC) interventions, successfully guiding traumatized communities to heal trauma injuries and rebuild core psychosocial strengths.
Mission
The mission of The International Trauma Center is to guide and support the natural resiliency responses of multicultural recovery into hope, healing and renewed strength for individuals and communities suffering from violence and trauma. The International Trauma Center is dedicated to the heart of trauma informed care: there is never any circumstance during the journey through resiliency into recovery that will ever require the use of restraint, seclusion, coercion or isolation. If we assist survivors to focus on and embody their resiliency responses when they were being harmed or exposed to violence and trauma, we initiate a rapid and more sustained recovery into creativity, innovative reconnection, and renewed healthy relationships.
International Trauma Center 