Opportunities for Students:

*Specialized coursework *Training *Practice Experience

Coursework
Social work students have an opportunity, at over forty schools across the country, to enroll in one of the National Center’s Core Concepts courses taught by trained faculty. The two courses offered are Core Concepts of Child and Adolescent Trauma (clinical practice); and Core Concepts of Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Practice. Both courses employ a problem-based learning approach used with five in-depth client case studies that reflect trauma’s impact on children of every developmental age period. This approach allows students to experience “real” cases as they actually unfold in practice and builds their critical thinking and case conceptualization skills. See the map below to find out where the courses are offered.

Training and Field Work
Students interested in working with traumatized children and adolescents and their families should complete fieldwork at an agency that delivers evidence-based trauma treatments (EBTT). Students attending one of the National Center’s partner schools (see map below), that has implemented the full education model, receive in addition to the clinical course: a) training in an EBTT prior to beginning their field placement; b) a trauma-informed field placement at a community-based agency that delivers EBTT; and c) supervision by a field instructor trained in the same EBTT.

Program Evaluation
Students have a unique opportunity to be part of a national evaluation of the Core Concepts curriculum and full educational model (as applicable). Using a pre-post test format, the evaluation team measures gains in students’ foundational (knowledge) and functional (practice readiness) competencies after taking a course. Developmental progress of competencies is also measured one year after students have graduated to help the evaluation team understand the model or course’s impact on practitioners. Read more about the program evaluation here and evaluation outcomes here.