The Utah County Trauma Resilience Initiative creates trauma-informed adults to support local children struggling with adversity.


Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on lifelong health and opportunity.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study shows that when a child experiences adverse experiences such as abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, divorce or other traumatic experiences it will effect later-life behavior/health outcomes. These can include social isolation, difficulty controlling anger, attachment problems, depression and more.
This is WHY we offer on-site training and presentations for teachers, administrators, parents and ALL care providers as well as monthly parenting classes and consultations to create a long-term culture of trauma sensitivity at your organization.

  • This training is VITAL for all educators and parents! Thank you for the experience and expertise that you brought today. WE NEED YOU!

    Teacher
    Alpine School District
  • This presentation is so needed for every teacher and parent at every level.
    Teacher
    Alpine School District
  • I really enjoyed the focus on HOW to talk to the children in a way that is forward and doesn’t excuse the behavior, but helps them know you’re there to help.
    Teacher
    Charter School
  • Great and helpful presentation. Every school and teacher should have this training before and during the teaching year.
    Teacher
    Alpine School District
  • My teachers have absolutely loved the information, have gained major “ah-has” about kids and overall left each meeting with wonderful information and skills.
    Principal
    Provo City School District

How Does Trauma-Resilience Training Help Me Help Kids?

As adults that deal with children we need to be TRAUMA RESILIENCE by:

  • Understanding the role that stress or trauma plays on emotional, social and cognitive development.
  • Using self-regulation concepts for controlling emotions and apply them to the children.
  • Understanding how stress and trauma can affect daily interactions and accomplishing tasks.
  • Taking stress and trauma into account when disciplining children and youth.

To help adults become better equipped to with these issues, our training includes:

  • Understanding the way ACEs effect behavior and learning
  • Exploring the the science behind toxic stress
  • Practical strategies for working with children struggling with adversity
  • Providing local and online resources to further assist you

Learn How Your School Can Be Trauma-Resilient:

The ‘trauma-sensitive schools’ movement has been present in parts of the United States for many years. This year the Utah State Office of Education is making it a priority to bring trauma-resilience practices to our state. Our Initiative is leading the way! Learn more about the origin of the national movement at traumasensitiveschools.org.

Adults that are trauma-sensitive, make a difference in the lives of our Utah children!

Take advantage of our FREE training by calling 801-229-1181 TODAY, or attend one of our monthly Stress Sensitivity classes for parents.  (see calendar for details).

  • I wish that the teachers had responded better to how I was reacting to the trauma, because it wasn’t normal for me to be ditching class and getting bad grades… If my teachers had known about a program like this, I know for sure I would’ve healed a lot faster.
    Child abuse victim
    Payson, Utah
  • I decided to give it a stab and see if some sort of traumatic event had happened in his life. I asked mom if anything had happened between 3rd and 4th grade (since his academic growth had been stunted from 3rd grade onward), and she said his brother had moved out to join the Marines and basically hadn’t been back since.
    Teacher
    Nebo School District
  • I began thinking about the training we had and recognized there might be some sort of traumatic event that caused his downward spiral. I questioned them… Two members of the extended family had committed suicide in the past three years – approximately the time that he began to have trouble in school.
    Administrator
    Nebo School District

Our Resources

Handouts from the trainings:

Trauma Resilience Listserv Archive:

The 2011-2012 National Survey on Children’s Health, as well as a 2011 Public Health Update by the Utah Department of Health show that ACEs are a concern in our state. The Utah Valley Trauma Resilience Initiative coordinated by the Family Support & Treatment Center seeks to actively spread awareness and education of the threat of ACEs to our community so that informed adults can help identify and support at-risk children and youth.