Trauma-Informed Care Regional Collaborative

The Ohio Departments of Behavioral Health (DBH) and Developmental Disabilities (DODD) collaborate on a statewide Trauma-Informed Care (TCC) Initiative intended to promote a greater sense of safety, security and equality among consumers/clients. TCC is an approach that explicitly acknowledges the role trauma plays in people’s lives. TCC means that every part of an organization or program understands the impact of trauma on the individuals they serve and adopts a culture that considers and addresses this impact. 

Working through six Regional Collaboratives, the initiative will expand opportunities for Ohioans to receive trauma-informed interventions by enhancing efforts for practitioners, facilities, and agencies to become competent in trauma-informed practices.

MHANKYSWOH is the lead organization for the Trauma-Informed Care Regional Collaborative’s Summit Region in partnership with ODBH and has worked with stakeholders to develop region-strategic priorities. What follows are the Summit Region’s Mission, Vision and Strategic Plan, along with meeting dates and contact information.

Our Region: Summit Southwest

Vision

A region where trauma-informed care is embedded across systems, schools, and communities, ensuring individuals and families feel supported, understood, and empowered, and where lived experience is honored as essential knowledge that drives transformation and fosters community resilience.

Mission

To strengthen collaboration, build capacity, and provide practical tools and training that reduce trauma’s impact, prevent re-traumatization and builds resilience across the 11-county Summit Region, while ensuring these tools are accessible to all.

Strategic Priorities

1. Strengthen member engagement by building infrastructure for the Trauma Informed Care Regional Collaborative.
   • Recruit key stakeholders with 100% representation from the region’s 11 counties.
   • Identify a point of contact per county to serve on the advisory group.
   • Identify the role of each county point of contact within the collaborative.
   • Identify key outcomes and activities for advisory group and coordination within larger collaborative membership.
2. Improve accessibility to resources for collaborative members and community.
   • Identify or create a centralized resource hub.
   • Establish resource sharing protocols (mailing lists, newsletters, etc.)
   • Create a plan for reaching community members to provide resource information.
   • Identify training opportunities for the collaborative to sponsor including desired topics, target audience and learning objectives.
3. Increase skills for non-clinical supports for those with lived experience.
   • Conduct assessment to identify core non-clinical competencies necessary for community members.
   • Assess current available resources, develop plan for sharing and identify resource gaps and ongoing opportunities.
   • Research and develop plan for micro-trainings.
   • Establish a core group of individuals with lived experience to guide training development.
   • Measure reach and impact after year 1.

Upcoming Meetings

All meeting are held virtually via Zoom at 1 PM EST.

• December 1, 2026
• March 2, 2027
• June 1, 2027
• September 7, 2027
• December 7, 2027

Upcoming Trainings

Move beyond asking, “What happened to you?” and begin exploring the powerful question: “What did you do to survive?” Trauma-informed care is an important starting point—but becoming truly trauma responsive means going deeper. In this interactive training, we’ll explore how survival responses shape the brain, body, behavior, relationships, and the ways people navigate systems of care.

Participants will explore the connections between trauma, intergenerational patterns, resilience, and genetic expression, while examining how both traumatic and resilience-building experiences can influence what gets carried forward across generations. Together, we’ll challenge trauma myths that contribute to a culture of nondisclosure and examine practical ways to grow, teach, and model trauma-responsive strategies in our work and our lives. Come ready to look beyond the question of what happened—and discover what survival can teach us about resilience, healing, and change.

---

Trauma-responsive care is not something we do to people. It is a way of being with people—and that starts with how we support those who provide care. Supervisors play a critical role in helping professionals develop the understanding, skills, and curiosity needed to support people impacted by trauma. In this training, we’ll explore how supervision itself can model the felt safety, trust, and empowerment we want helping professionals to create in their relationships with clients.

Participants will connect theories of helping relationships with trauma science and practical application while exploring techniques that support the 3Rs of successful trauma resolution. We’ll also examine existing supervision models and consider how supervisors can develop a personal approach that supports evolving relationships between supervisor, supervisee, and the people they serve. When supervision creates the safety we want professionals to provide, learning, growth, and trauma-responsive practice can happen together.

---

Interested in learning more about this project? Contact the Regional Lead, Amanda Shaw, at ashaw@mhankyswoh.org.