Training & Research
HEROES Project
Parsons Child and Family Center’s HEROES Project (Healing with Emotional Resilience, Opportunities, and Enduring Supports) funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Department of Health and Human Services through a grant to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN),assists professionals from across New York in developing integrated, specialized services tailored to the specific demographic of children and families referred to residential treatment, foster family and home-based child welfare as well as affiliated mental health programs. The HEROES Project will provide professionals the skills to fill critical gaps that often lead to fragmented and ineffective services.
The primary goal of the HEROES Project is to foster enduring, emotionally supportive relationships that protect children from abuse and neglect, helping them resume healthy growth and skill development. To achieve this, the Heroes Project is focusing on increasing the number of child welfare practitioners across New York utilizing trauma-informed and resiliency-focused interventions.
The HEROES Project will allow Parsons Child and Family Center to expand its work in the development of innovative services and training programs for children and families. Parsons has helped evaluate trauma-informed practices, helped lead national workgroups that have developed trauma-informed training curricula for practitioners in child welfare programs, presented training programs in New York and other states, and published articles to advance the understanding and effectiveness of child and family service programs.
To reduce traumatic stress symptoms, the HEROES Project is working toward incorporating trauma-informed and resiliency-focused framework into assessments, service planning, child protective services, home-based family counseling, foster family care and residential treatment.
Richard Kagan, Ph.D. and Joanne Trinkle, LMSW serve as Co-Directors of the HEROES Project with a diverse and representative group of interested individuals who serve on the HEROES Project Advisory Board. This also included introductory training programs on traumatic stress, and development of HEROES Project teams including practitioners, county Department of Children, Youth, and Families’ staff, caring adults, and youths from residential treatment, foster family care, and home-based family services.
For further information about the HEROES Project and Parsons, please contact:
Dr. Richard Kagan
or
Joanne Trinkle, LMSW
To learn more about the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Click Here
To learn more about the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Click Here