Trauma and Adolescent Development Webinar With Shantel Assata

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion host­ed a live webi­nar on trau­ma and ado­les­cent devel­op­ment on Tues­day, Sept. 19, fea­tur­ing Shantel Assa­ta, LCPC, a behav­ioral health clin­i­cian work­ing with young peo­ple in the Wash­ing­ton, D.C. area.

By watch­ing a record­ing of this this one-hour webi­nar, par­tic­i­pants will:

• Under­stand how trau­ma affects ado­les­cent devel­op­ment based on the lat­est research and Assata’s own work with young people.
• Learn tac­tics to improve ser­vices and pro­grams aimed at youth with trau­ma experiences.

Alexan­dra Lohrbach, a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foun­da­tion and an expert in work­ing with young peo­ple involved with pub­lic sys­tems, opened the webi­nar. She was joined by Assa­ta, who has diverse coun­sel­ing expe­ri­ence with vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions in many set­tings. She holds a master’s in foren­sic psy­chol­o­gy and is a licensed clinician.

Dur­ing the webi­nar, Assa­ta ref­er­ences the fol­low­ing resources:

• Total Esti­mat­ed Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect by Suzette Fromm Reed, Ph.D.
• Esti­mat­ed Annu­al Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect from Pre­vent Child Abuse America.
• The Eco­nom­ic Bur­den of Child Mal­treat­ment in the Unit­ed States by Cora Peter­son, Cur­tis Flo­rence and Joanne Klevens.

This webi­nar was the sec­ond in a series focused on youth men­tal health. The top­ics were inspired by atten­dees of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Youth Men­tal Health Sum­mit held with the Office of the U.S. Sur­geon Gen­er­al in April 2023. Held in Atlanta, this con­ven­ing brought togeth­er young lead­ers, prac­ti­tion­ers, advo­cates, fun­ders, edu­ca­tors and pol­i­cy­mak­ers from across the coun­try to learn from each oth­er and iden­ti­fy promis­ing strate­gies to improve the well-being of youth.

Future webi­na­rs in this series include:

• Octo­ber 17 – The Stages of Ado­les­cent Brain Devel­op­ment: Under­stand­ing the Jour­ney of Cog­ni­tive and Emo­tion­al Growth
• Novem­ber 21 – Address­ing the Men­tal Health Needs of Young Immigrants
• Decem­ber 19 – Explor­ing Com­mu­ni­ty-Based Approach­es to Youth Men­tal Health Care
• Jan­u­ary 23, 2024 – Pre­vent­ing Adverse Child­hood Expe­ri­ences: Cre­at­ing Safe and Nur­tur­ing Environments