Ready4K Trauma-Informed
Give families impacted by trauma the extra layer of support they need and deserve, from birth to Grade 8.
Ready4K Trauma-Informed provides a unique combination of protective factors-aligned messages, connections to concrete supports in time of need, family communications tools, and critical data.
See what low lift, high impact really means
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Why Ready4K Trauma-Informed?
Nearly half of the children in the United States have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE). When unaddressed, these potentially traumatic experiences can result in both immediate and lifelong negative impacts.
Luckily, the negative effects of trauma can be mitigated. Research indicates that having supportive and responsive relationships with caring adults as early in life as possible can prevent or reverse the damaging effects of trauma.
Ready4K Trauma-Informed is designed to give parents, caregivers, and programs the tools and insights they need to buffer the effects of trauma and navigate challenge and adversity, as a component of a comprehensive trauma-informed strategy or a stand-alone approach.
The Trauma-Informed Curriculum
Informed by multiple years of engagement with mental health experts and agencies, community health workers, parents, and providers, Ready4K created a curriculum specifically designed to help families buffer the effects of trauma.
Ready4K Trauma-Informed builds on the evidence-based Ready4K model, in which parents and caregivers receive fun facts and easy tips on how to promote their children’s development by building on existing family routines.
The Trauma-Informed curriculum is designed to strengthen the Protective Factors, which are five characteristics or strengths that act to mitigate risks and buffer the effects of trauma:
- Parental Resilience
- Social Connections
- Knowledge of Parenting & Child Development
- Concrete Support in Times of Need
- Social & Emotional Competency of Children
Ready4K Trauma-Informed also includes a Community Support Stream, which provides families with links to local resources. Ready4K partners often include links to health care, food access, housing, and other essential supports.
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% of parents who say that Ready4K Trauma-Informed messages helped them solve parenting problems
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% of parents that say Ready4K Trauma-Informed helped them feel that support is available to them
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% of parents who said Ready4K messages have helped them understand their child’s feelings and behaviors
Support Your Afghan Refugee Families
Do you serve Afghan refugee families? A customized version of Ready4K Trauma-Informed for Afghan refugee families is now available for all Ready4K partners.
In addition to strengthening families’ protective factors and promoting children’s growth and learning through the Ready4K Trauma-Informed program, Afghan families also receive support for the transition to life and school in the United States.
Reach out to request more information about this unique program.
Preview Sample Messages
Experience the Ready4K Trauma-Informed program for yourself through these sample messages.
What Partners Are Saying About Ready4K Trauma-Informed
“We need to invest in things that parents don’t have to show up for, things that show up for parents in their homes.”
“What I love about it is that I can send out messages like ‘we’ve got a meeting at this time and place.’ And they all get it — Boom.”
"I think Ready4K fills a need that no other program I've been able to find to date can fill."
"Connect with families in such an easy format... with ideas that are easily usable... It almost seemed like a no-brainer -- like why wouldn't you?"
"It's old school, new school. It's innovative, but then the text messaging... it's a quick read. And just like that this can reach so many families."
Trauma-Informed Partner Support
All Ready4K programs offer Partners the same robust implementation and data aggregation support that comes with Ready4K Core.
In addition, Partners who offer their families the Trauma-Informed program receive the following:
Share Concrete Local Resources
Ready4K experts guide partners through a community asset mapping process to create a supplemental set of messages that link families to community resources, such as food, housing, economic, educational, and health services, as well as invitations to join community events.
Parents and caregivers receive these messages with direct links to support, making it easy for families to find resources when they need them most.
Send your own messages
The Ready4K Trauma-Informed program includes a texting system so that you can share updates and build relationships with families during the school year and over the summer. Schedule and send messages in multiple languages, including links, images, and PDFs, amplifying your trauma-informed strategy and supports.
Actionable Data
Ready4K Trauma-Informed provides robust data for program review, stakeholder engagement, and reporting requirements. In addition to standard enrollment, persistence, and usage data, this program includes:
- Quarterly family engagement surveys that focus on the protective factors and offer partners insights into families’ experiences and needs
- Click-through data to identify which community services and resources are most needed
- Data on when phone numbers move from working to nonworking, which can be a signal of distress in the home
What Parents Receiving Trauma Informed Messages Say
Read More About Our Impact
FAQ & Resources
What makes this a trauma-informed program?
Ready4K Trauma-Informed provides families with a parenting curriculum designed to strengthen the protective factors, which are five characteristics or strengths that act to mitigate risks and buffer the effects of trauma:
- Parental Resilience
- Social Connections
- Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development (including literacy, math, and more)
- Concrete Support in Times of Need
- Social and Emotional Competency of Children
In order to provide concrete supports, we facilitate a community asset mapping process, which results in a supplemental set of messages that link families to community resources. These often include resources to support substance misuse recovery; job training; and food, housing, educational, and both physical and mental health services. Partners also provide links to local activities and other fun resources.
Is it aligned with state and national standards?
Yes! The Ready4K Trauma-Informed program was built using the SAMHSA 4Rs framework and follows the Protective Factors Framework. We are also aligned to the Head Start standards.
Contact us for an alignment to your state’s trauma-informed standards.
Can I enroll different families in different Ready4K programs?
Yes, different Ready4K programs can be targeted to meet the unique needs of different families. Contact us to learn more about how you can flexibly deploy Ready4K in your community.
Is this an add-on to Ready4K Core?
Ready4K Trauma-Informed is a stand-alone program, purpose-built to meet the specific needs of families impacted by trauma. The program was created through the lens of the SAMHSA 4Rs and based on the Protective Factors Framework. Trauma-Informed leverages the evidence-based approach behind Ready4K and covers academic learning in Math and Literacy in addition to supporting the social and emotional skills of both kids and parents.
Is the program evidence-based?
Ready4K Trauma-Informed is an extension of the core Ready4K family support approach, which has the strongest evidence base in the field with multiple underlying randomized controlled trials.
In addition to our own evidence base, the program is informed by multiple years of engagement with mental health experts and agencies, community health workers, parents, and providers, as well as insights from our intensive work with community partners on the front lines of supporting families experiencing trauma.
In a large-scale survey, we found that 93% of parents said Ready4K Trauma-Informed helped them deal with stress, 91% said that it helped increase their confidence as parents, and 97% of parents said that Ready4K Trauma-Informed helped them feel more supported.
What age ranges do you serve?
The program provides parenting support for families with children ages birth through 8th grade.