This guide provides human services leaders at the local, State, Tribal, and Territorial levels with information and resources on recent advances in our understanding of trauma, toxic stress, and executive functioning. It especially highlights what these advances mean for program design and service delivery. The guide helps professionals learn about trauma-informed care and helps those currently engaged in trauma-informed work to improve their practice. These resources provide an overview of key concepts related to trauma and a guide to resources from a range of HHS federal agencies and respected sources outside government. These materials are both a “front door” to the topic of trauma and a “road map” to relevant resources.

In this edition of the Social IMPACT Research Center at Heartland Alliance’s annual poverty report, the research team analyzes the ways in which poverty, violence, and trauma are interrelated in Illinois. The report finds that poverty and violence often have the same root causes, and unaddressed trauma in communities that experience poverty and violence serves to exacerbate both of these social issues.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation hosted this webinar in October 2016; the webinar recording is available online. The webinar is part of a series discussing lessons learned from the Foundation’s Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) initiative, which is working with youth, especially those who have been justice system involved, homeless, or in the child welfare system, to address the challenges that make it difficult for them to achieve degrees or maintain jobs. LEAP sites have aimed to make their services responsive to youth who have experienced trauma, since research shows that suffering extreme stress and adverse experiences in childhood can impair physical development in ways that have long-term consequences. On the webinar, three LEAP sites discussed how they have made their services trauma-responsive.

This post from the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring is part of a series on toxic stress. In this post, the authors highlight what professional staff need to know about toxic stress to best serve vulnerable youth and families.

This post from the Annie E. Casey Foundation presents data at the state and national level regarding the well-being and economic status of families. The author notes that to achieve financial stability, all available parents will likely need to work. In addition, the post discusses the need for access to affordable child care and paid leave.

Commonwealth, an Annie E. Casey Foundation grantee, recently launched an incentive program to help Americans build savings through a program called Prize Savings. Prize Savings allows Walmart MoneyCard customers to enter monthly sweepstakes that awards cash prizes when the customers elect to save. This proven strategy that motivates positive financial behaviors can help families build savings and assets.

The Administration for Children and Families, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Community Living, the Offices of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have worked together to develop this Guide to Trauma-Informed Human Services. The guide provides an introduction to the topic of trauma, discusses why understanding and addressing trauma is important for human services programs, and a offers a “road map” to find relevant resources.

Some aspects of child development are often misconstrued. This brief from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child examines these aspects and clarifies their meaning and importance. For example, even infants are adversely affected when significant stresses occur in their family environment.

A new study, launched by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation and conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and Abt Associates, will document the design and implementation of coaching interventions and examine their effectiveness of helping low-income individuals work toward economic stability.