Advocacy

Advocacy is central to our mission. We work with both government and non-governmental partners to inform policy and services that affect children, ultimately helping us fulfill our mission to build trauma-informed communities. 

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Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition

Founded in 2005, and joining CCR in 2016, the Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition (ICTC) is a voluntary collaboration of organizations that are committed to applying a trauma lens to their efforts on behalf of families and children in the state. ICTC is made up of more than 120 public, private, clinical, research, advocacy and educational institutions. With a diversity of disciplines and perspectives, ICTC tracks emerging trends, promotes education among professionals and the public, and offers support to a broad network. CCR Founder and Executive Director Colleen Cicchetti serves as ICTC's Clinical Director, and Gaylord Gieseke is the Chair.  

Committee on Refugee and Immigrant Children and Trauma. ICTC recognizes that children and their families immigrate to the United States for a variety of reasons and under a variety of circumstances, some of which may be traumatic. The Committee on Refugee & Immigrant Children & Trauma comprises volunteers from ICTC and other agencies who work with immigrant and refugee children. The committee is charged with exploring ways to use ICTC’s current resources to raise public awareness of how trauma can impact immigrant and refugee children; develop the workforce necessary to serve the needs of these unique communities; and build the capacity of agencies to help immigrant and refugee families that may have experienced traumatizing events.

Workforce Development Committee. The Workforce Development Committee (WFD) was established in 2015 with the goal of developing a workforce that includes all individuals working with children and families that is trauma-informed. The WFD Committee has identified six core competency areas for professionals from diverse sectors aimed at providing a common framework as they seek to inform, educate and train others in the complex field of childhood trauma: 1) Introduction to Trauma 2) Nature of Trauma 3) Impact of Trauma on the Child 4) Prevention, Resiliency & Protective Factors 5) Interactions and Interventions with Survivors of Trauma, and 6) Self-Care and Vicarious Trauma.

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Chicago Is With You Task Force

CCR is proud to be a partner in One Chicago. Established in 2017 to unify all Chicagoans as one city and one voice and created by the Chicago is With You Task Force, the One Chicago campaign facilitates access to resources and support for Chicago’s residents, including its immigrant and refugee communities. CCR's Colleen Cicchetti and Rebecca Ford-Paz lead the task force's Mental Health and Well-Being subcommittee and provide direction on creating and providing trainings to organizations engaging with the immigrant communities to identify and mitigate mental health problems. By training on-the-ground service providers to handle these problems (or identify and refer them to a specialist), this initiative will save lives and strengthen families. 

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Healthy Chicago 2.0

The City of Chicago's Healthy Chicago 2.0 initiative has an underlying goal of achieving health equity and a commitment to reducing health inequities in our city. This vision will be achieved when Chicago’s public health system and a multi-sector network of organizations including health care providers, government agencies, social service providers, advocates, academic institutions, businesses and faith-based organizations works collectively to improve the health of the population. Healthy Chicago 2.0 outlines 30 goals, 82 objectives and over 200 strategies across 10 action areas. Many strategies are cross cutting, and employ policy, systems and environmental change.

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Illinois Children's Mental Health Partnership 

The Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership (ICMHP) is a statewide, public/private partnership of policymakers and advocates in Illinois committed to improving the scope, quality, and access of mental health programs, services, and supports for children. ICMHP takes a broad look at children’s mental health by using a public health approach, knowing that a comprehensive children’s mental health system must be built on a foundation of quality prevention, promotion, early intervention/identification, and treatment services and supports.

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Strengthening Chicago's Youth

Strengthening Chicago’s Youth (SCY) builds capacity among stakeholders to connect, collaborate, and mobilize around a public health approach to violence prevention. SCY takes and encourages action around five focus areas, including equitable access to high quality mental health services and a juvenile justice system that reflects what we know about adolescent development. SCY actively develops and advocates for children’s mental health policy and systems change and frequently hosts trainings on topics related to children’s mental health.