National Collaborative on Trauma Surviving Homeless Children

Homeless families experience traumatic events. In addition to the need to reestablish a home, homeless children and parents suffer from additional threats to their well-being, including mental and physical illness, substance abuse, and interpersonal violence.

Through our work as a partner in the National Collaborative on Trauma Surviving Homeless Children (the Collaborative), The National Center works to increase knowledge about the range of trauma experienced by homeless children and their parents, determine best practices to provide trauma-related services to homeless families, and develop methods and strategies to increase access to treatment and services. Because the needs of trauma-surviving homeless children and parents cut across multiple service areas, The National Center is also helping to develop effective cross-system partnerships.

The National Center, in partnership with the Trauma Center and the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, formed the Collaborative in 2003 after receiving a four year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The Collaborative is a part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), a coalition of treatment centers from across the United States whose purpose is to improve the quality, effectiveness, provision, and availability of therapeutic services delivered to all children and adolescents experiencing traumatic events.