Children & Families First Delaware Named 2024 Innovative Impact Award Winner by Social Current

Social Current has selected Children & Families First Delaware (CFF) as the 2024 Innovative Impact Award winner for its Brain Science Training Institute (BSTI). The organization, based in Wilmington, Delaware, provides a continuum of child-centered and family-focused services throughout the state.

BSTI is a professional and organizational development program to embed brain science, trauma-informed principles, and related concepts into service delivery and staff, organizational, and community development. The institute is aimed at training internal staff to provide trauma-responsive care, and to help other organizations in the state and country begin their trauma-informed care journey.

CFF began by training all staff in trauma-informed care, brain science, resilience, and self-care. Its internal trainers provide quarterly training to all new staff in the foundational principles of brain science and trauma-informed care, as well as provide regular retraining and advanced training to all CFF staff. In preparing to offer training and consultation externally, the organization began building capacity of internal trainers to provide foundational training and advanced training modules.

“I am thrilled to recognize CFF for their work to accelerate the adoption of brain science within the human services sector and beyond,” says Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “We know that applying trauma-informed approaches is critical for healthy child development and workforce resilience, and CFF is at the forefront of this innovative work.”

Since inception in 2020, BSTI has trained more than 1,500 individuals, including K-12 educators, early childhood providers, child-welfare professionals, law enforcement, social services providers, and victim service advocates.

BSTI conducts post evaluations of the training provided to agencies. Most attendees include educators and school staff (39%) and human services and mental health professionals (32%). Across 10 questions on the understanding of trauma and toxic stress and methods to promote resilience and reduce compassion fatigue, 92% of participants in 2022 and 2023 felt they strongly agreed or agreed. In addition, 99% of participants felt they could apply the skills and information learned to their professional work and personal goals.

Video Interview with CFF

In this video interview with Karen Johnson of Social Current, Shannon Fisch and Kiera McGillivray, who co-lead the BSTI at CFF, discuss its impact on their organization and how they’ve been able to support other community organizations in embracing brain science.

Learn More at SPARK 2024

CFF will be recognized at the SPARK 2024 conference, Oct. 21-22 in Denver, and staff will share their expertise in their workshop on trauma-informed performance management.

Brain Science and Trauma-Informed Approaches is an area of focus for SPARK 2024 workshops. Other sessions in this focus area address creating a healing-oriented culture, somatic and embodied approaches, nature-connected wellness, and employee engagement.

Register for SPARK 2024 by Sept. 20 to receive the early bird rate.