White Papers

Sexual Assault Risk Reduction
The purpose of this white paper is to make a sober appraisal of the risk factors that increase the likelihood of a survivor of sexual assault being reassaulted. This white paper provides recommendations to sexual assault victim services for more effectively reducing known risk factors that place victims in danger of being sexually assaulted again. It focuses on delivering researched, informed, thought-out, policy-based guidelines for action specifically on the individual level.

Spirituality and Trauma Recovery
The California Center of Excellence for Trauma Informed Care has produced the following white paper in coordination with its website project to help Stop Trusted Advisor Abuse by providing an opportunity to educate the general public, to hold professionals to a higher level of responsibility, to ensure that accountability systems do a much better job policing abuse within their ranks, and to protect those who rely on providers, whether in publicly-funded systems or on the private market.

Trauma and Opioid Misuse and Treatment
In light of the frequent connection between trauma exposure and substance abuse, the California Center of Excellence for Trauma Informed Care has produced the following white paper as part of its mission to advance research-based policies and practices that respond to the needs of trauma-exposed clients by focusing on safety, skills and designing practices that encourage trauma recovery.
Introductions to Trauma Informed Key Values

Introduction: Key Values Begin with Safety
Founded in 2009, the California Center of Excellence for Trauma Informed Care is an organization dedicated to helping publicly funded agencies understand the impact of trauma on their clients, both individually and as a group, and to then use that understanding to design programs (interventions, policies, training) to work more effectively with their clients. Using the Fallot and Harris (2001) framework from “Using Trauma Theory to Design Service Systems” as the foundation from which to then build and strengthen the entire publicly funded social service system. Fallot identifies key values from which a trauma-informed program can develop: safety, trustworthiness, choice,…

Who are trauma informed services for?
A recent publication on creating trauma informed programs for sexual assault programs (available for download on the Resources page), quoted the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, “Trauma-informed care is an approach to engaging people with histories of trauma that recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played in their lives.”
This is a key definition to our understanding of trauma informed care as it relates to service provision. For too long and with dire consequences, mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse intervention, hospitals, and schools—among others—simply saw challenging and unproductive behavior as…

What’s wrong with relationships?
“Children develop within an environment of relationships that begins in the family but also involves other adults who play important roles in their lives. This can include extended family members, providers of early care and education, nurses, social workers, coaches, and neighbors,” states the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University in From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts: A Science-Based Approach to Building a More Promising Future for Young Children and Families (2016). The seemingly benign statement is fraught with potentially negative results.