Welcome to TraumaInformedTexas.com

Building a Trauma-Informed Texas 

Welcome to TraumaInformedTexas.com. This webpage includes resources created in whole or in part by members of the Statewide Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Care (SCTIC) as well as resources from other state and national organizations. The SCTIC and the Supreme Court of Texas Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families (Children’s Commission) do not endorse any particular training resource, modality, or curriculum. Materials and links found on this page are not an endorsement of any organizations or approaches. The materials should not be construed as an advisory or ruling by or from the Supreme Court of Texas on specific cases or legal issues. These materials are solely intended to address the improvement of the law, the legal system, and the administration of justice and are only included for informational purposes.

A trauma-informed Texas child welfare system serves every child and family with dignity and respect. Through this webpage, the SCTIC aims to provide information and resources so Texas can accelerate the many efforts across our state to bring a trauma-informed lens to each child and family that interacts with the child welfare system.

What is the Statewide Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Care?

The SCTIC is a dedicated network of professionals and stakeholders invested in transforming the Texas child welfare system into a system that routinely views children and families as individuals who have experienced traumatic events. Under the leadership of the Children’s Commission, the SCTIC embarked on the first phase of its efforts in 2017 by developing objectives and strategies for moving the entire Texas child welfare system forward in a trauma-informed manner. Based on the SCTIC’s work, the Children’s Commission published Building a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System: A Blueprint.

The Blueprint creates a roadmap for the Texas child welfare system to become trauma-informed and trauma-responsive and invites innovation and improvement in the approach to trauma-informed care in both the public and private sectors. The SCTIC Implementation Task Force provides a vehicle for implementing the Blueprint by organizing and collaborating on statewide and local efforts.


Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices

The Children’s Commission began the next phase of the work related to trauma informed care in August 2024, by launching a new initiative called the Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices. The Consortium provides a statewide network for judges to have a forum for discussion, education, and training. Chaired by Hon. Carlos Villalon Jr., Judge of the Child Protection Court of the Rio Grande Valley West, the Consortium is guided by the four mentor judges who participated in the year-long pilot on Trauma-Informed Courts:

  • Hon. Linda Dunson, Judge of the 309th Family District Court, Houston;
  • Hon. Angela Graves-Harrington, Judge of the 246th Family District Court, Houston; 
  • Hon. Andrea James, Associate Judge of the Second Region Child Protection Court Number 2, Bryan; and
  • Hon. Cheryl Vaughan, Associate Judge of the Child Protection Court Eighth Region North, Gainesville.

Designed for judges handling civil child welfare cases, the Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices meets bimonthly in a virtual forum.   

Please read below to learn more about the SCTIC and access related resources including the Consortium on Trauma Informed Court Practices library on Trauma Informed Practice Strategies (TIPS). While these are geared towards judges who handle child welfare cases, attorneys and other child welfare stakeholders may also find the TIPS to be informative and helpful.

Resources

Trauma-Informed Training

In collaboration with the Children’s Commission’s SCTIC and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), the SAMHSA South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) has compiled training resources and created documents meant to provide information on available trauma-informed care training resources for various stakeholders in a child’s life. While not an exhaustive list, these resource pages are a helpful starting place to locate appropriate training for a specific role.

The full list of documents is available on MHTTC's website.

Role-specific training resources are linked below:

 

2021 Judicial Trauma Institute

The Judicial Trauma Institute was presented live on April 22-23, 2021 via webcast. The content was designed by Commission staff in partnership with the Statewide Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Care (SCTIC) Training Workgroup and hosted by the Texas Center for the Judiciary. The goal of the conference was for judicial teams to gain information and discover practical tools and resources about how to become a trauma-informed and trauma-responsive court in child welfare cases. Judicial teams were composed by judges who invited the following members from their jurisdictions: a court coordinator; a prosecutor; an attorney who takes appointments for parents and for children in CPS cases; a senior-level Caseworker or Supervisor at DFPS; and a CASA Executive Director or Program Director. Due to the virtual format, additional child welfare stakeholders and single registrant judges also attended.

Video replays and conference materials can be accessed on the Judicial Trauma Institute webpage.