Transforming Children’s Lives

education • consultation • research • practice • dissemination

The Center for Advanced Practice at Adoption Rhode Island is a national hub to inform policy and practice, elevate the workforce and to create solutions that achieve long-term well being and positive outcomes for children and youth impacted by childhood trauma.

We seek to make research, education and best practice easily accessible to professionals who serve children, youth and families.

Our experience and expertise with adopted children impacted by abuse and neglect, young people in foster care transitioning to adulthood, caretakers who struggle to meet the complex needs of children and youth with emotional and behavioral challenges and all who heal and recover from traumatic histories, drive our purpose.

We seek to transform the lives of thousands of children and youth through sharing tools, strategies and promising resources to practitioners and policymakers.

We Engage

We Partner

We Customize

We Deliver

0 %+
At Least 1 Traumatic Event By Age 16​. More than 1/4 Report 3 or more ACES
0 %+
public school personnel exposed to high levels of direct and secondary trauma in the workplace.
0 +
Children Are In the Foster Care System. 20,000+ age out without permanency.
0 +
years is the median time a front-line child-welfare caseworker stays on the job.
1 %
School-Aged Children in US Who Have Experienced Trauma.
1 %
of kids in foster care are African-American, but they make up only 15% of the child population.

Engage with Us

Learn About Our Vision

The Center for Advanced Practice

There are far too many children who are hurting and youth feeling disconnected. Permanency is essential to the well-being of every youth leaving care. 

To build the capacity of the child-welfare workforce across systems, The Center for Advanced Practice is a hub for research, education, information and best practice that is easily accessible in one place to the professionals who work with our nation’s most vulnerable children and youth. 

To advance solutions to delays in finding permanency, The Center for Advanced Practice promotes youth voice and engagement. 

With our research and academic partners, and as advocates, we will gather and widely share existing and new knowledge and evidence to drive innovative solutions to solve issues and make real systems change.

Why Adoption Rhode Island?

Adoption Rhode Island leads the field in delivering compassionate and trauma-informed services to achieve the best lifelong outcomes for children, teens and families impacted by child abuse, foster care and adoption.

We know the children who have had trauma in their lives and we know how to help them. We meet them everyday in our work 

With the unmatched expertise of our deeply experienced team, and connections with national child-welfare experts, academic and research partners, and state and national policy-makers, we continuously seek opportunities to expand our impact and respond to current and emerging trends.

Solutions

We'd Love To share our knowledge and experience

The Center for Advanced Practice offers solutions.

Connect with us to learn more how our training, research partnerships, consultation, advocacy and convening of stakeholders and experts can meet your needs. 

Join us in ensuring that we treat trauma today to prevent poor health and wellness outcomes as the children you care for become adults

Professional Development

Making it easy for the helpers who can make the most difference to find and use resources they need.

To build the capacity of the workforce and improve outcomes for children and youth, our training and consultation can be customized for teachers and school staff, medical professionals, clinical teams and social workers, court staff, lawyers, child welfare workers, and more. 

Our approach is to equip professionals and providers with the tools to meet the unique needs of trauma-impacted children using a holistic, strengths-based approach that emphasizes compassion and a view towards healing.

Disseminating Research and Best Practice

Working to reduce the gaps between research and practice implementation.

University partnerships and collaboration with researchers are translating existing and new research into best practice. 

Varied methods of dissemination deliver those best practices to the practitioners across fields and disciplines. 

System leaders and policy-makers can access data and evidence to inform critical decision making.

“I had been an urban educator for nearly a decade when I enrolled in a training to become a foster parent. The program was an incredible experience in educating me on the effects of trauma and strategies to be supportive of children. While it was critical for my preparation as a foster parent, it also massively changed my perspective as an educator. It was as if I was looking at my students through a new lens. It made me more human, more flexible, and more effective with urban students, many who have faced multiple occurrences of trauma. In now 12 years of teaching, this was the most effective professional development I have received.”
Alex
Rhode Island Music Teacher

Supporting the Workforce

Preventing and reducing secondary traumatic stress in the workforce.

Secondary stress in child and youth serving professions is real and leads to burnout and high turnover rate.

We partner with the front-line workforce in child welfare, schools, hospitals, court and community settings and we are here to support the dedicated child-workforce devoted to caring for children impacted by trauma who can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and depth of their needs.

Advocacy and Convening

Facilitating critical conversations to make system change a reality.

Get Involved

Invest in making transformational change.
Join an upcoming Conversation.
Become a Research Partner.