Training and Internship Opportunities

YOUTH-CAN is a network of community representatives striving to share information and resources to improve local and national communities’ abilities to organize and mobilize responses to community violence as they impact youth and their families. This training initiative focuses on trauma awareness, collaboration, and supporting best practices for violence prevention and trauma intervention. The goals of YOUTH-CAN are to: 1) increase awareness about trauma and community violence, 2) promote the use of best practices for violence prevention and trauma-informed care, 3) to promote individual level participation and responsiveness to address community violence, and 4) support connections and collaborations to address community violence. More information on YOUTH-CAN

STRONG Families is a family systems-based intervention for youth with traumatic stress and co-occurring disruptive behavior problems stemming from community violence exposure. The strengths-based approach has been developed for urban, ethnically diverse families with youth between the ages of 11-16 who have been impacted by community violence and are exhibiting disruptive behavior. The manualized intervention includes modules on psychoeducation about traumatic stress and disruptive behavior, emotion recognition and expression, cognitive coping and processing, behavior management and parenting skills, family communication and problem-solving, and trauma narratives in the context of community violence exposure. Additionally, there are opportunities for multi-family groups and music-based adaptations of the core STRONG Families protocol (e.g., rap music and hip hop culture) for clients who have been affected by violence in the community. More information on STRONG Families

I-CARE is a community-based program designed for 13-17 year olds who are having difficulties regulating emotions resulting from traumatic experiences and environmental stress, and who are also having problems with substance abuse. This integrated approach includes strategies from empirically supported treatment programs for traumatic stress as well as substance abuse problems, and is adapted from the Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) approach (Saxe, Ellis, & Brown, 2015). TST focuses on increasing environmental stability and emotional/behavioral regulation. Each adolescent family’s specific needs are addressed with a flexible treatment approach using modules that include home and community-based care, psychopharmacology, services advocacy, emotional regulation skills training, trauma processing, and meaning making skills training. Program materials developed specifically for I-CARE include an adolescent and parent workbook that illustrate points covered in treatment and provide opportunities for in-session and home practice and self-evaluation. I-CARE treatment materials have been adapted for use in residential settings. More information on ICARE

UYTC co-directors offer clinical and research training opportunities to psychology trainees at the Institute for Juvenile Research, in which they can participate in UYTC service delivery, training, program evaluation and dissemination efforts. These training opportunities are available through the Pediatric Stress and Anxiety Disorders Program with Dr. Suarez and the STRONG Families Disruptive Behavior Disorders program with Dr. Abdul-Adil. Prospective psychology clinical interns can obtain more information about the psychology internship at Internship - Psychology Training Programs.