This FREE HRC webcast which aired on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 discussed trauma-informed care and how it impacts services in a drop-in center for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.

View the complete webcast recording: Creating Trauma-Informed Programs: Youth Drop-in Centers and Beyond

Download the PowerPoint presentation: Creating Trauma-Informed Programs: Youth Drop-in Centers and Beyond note: by opting to download this file, you will be redirected to a third party site for the download.

This webcast explores strategies and challenges to creating trauma-informed services in a drop-in center for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. Ayala Livny from Youth on Fire, a drop-in center in Cambridge, MA will share her program's experiences with trauma-informed care, along with trauma expert, Kathleen Guarino of the National Center on Family Homelessness. This dialogue will offer important information about the basics of becoming trauma-informed and best practices in drop-in centers.

About the Presenters

Ayala Livny
Ayala is the Program Manager of Youth on Fire (YOF), a drop-in center for homeless youth ages 14-24 in Cambridge MA and a prevention program of Cambridge Cares About AIDS. She has been working on issues of homelessness, positive youth development, and HIV prevention since 1995 and has worked in schools, shelters, and other social services in Illinois, Michigan, Philadelphia and Boston. She holds a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where her work focused on the impact of poverty on human and child development. She began her work with homeless young adults as a case manager at YOF in 2004, and has been managing the program since 2006.

Kathleen Guarino, LMHC
Kathleen is a Trauma Specialist and Trainer at the National Center on Family Homelessness. She assists in curricula and other material and presentation development as well as training and consultation around the effects of violence and trauma in the lives of children and families. Kathleen managed the development of the Trauma-Informed Organizational Toolkit and currently oversees its implementation at the local and national level, providing training, education and consultation to create trauma-informed programming in shelter and housing programs. Kathleen provides trainings on traumatic stress and trauma-informed care throughout the country at regional and national conferences. Kathleen’s previous experience includes working as a clinician in a residential treatment facility and providing therapeutic services for children and families impacted by trauma. Kathleen is a licensed mental health clinician who received her Masters in Counseling Psychology from Boston College in 2001. Kathleen continued her clinical training by completing the Certificate Program in Traumatic Stress Studies at the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA, in 2007.