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Grants & Publications

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Jeanne Felter, PhD
  • Director
  • Chair, Counseling and Behavioral Health Department
  • Jefferson College of Health Professions
Stephen DiDonato, PhD
  • Senior Director for Strategic Engagements and Innovation
  • Associate Professor
  • Jefferson College of Nursing

Grants

Jefferson Trauma Education Network has several grants that fund our work in three key areas of focus.

  • Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Grant
    • $2,000,000 ($500,000 annually, 4 years)
    • July 2021-June 2025

This grant funds the Child/Adolescent Interprofessional Practice and Education (CAIPE) Program. Less than one-quarter of the nation’s mental health needs were being addressed through public systems before COVID-19, and mental health workforce shortages exist in every U.S. state. In Philadelphia, wait times for youth seeking mental health services are excessive. COVID-19 has further impeded access, has inspired an increase in depression, anxiety and suicidality among youth, and has rendered youth more vulnerable to domestic violence and other traumas. While the full extent of the long-term impact on children’s mental health is uncertain, crisis hotlines and emergency departments across Philadelphia are experiencing an increase in youth behavioral health emergencies, and experts are predicting a youth behavioral health crisis in the imminent future and for years to come. Trauma-impacted youth often present with complex, comorbid behavioral and physical health needs that are best addressed by coordinated care teams, which requires that providers across systems be equipped with behavioral health and interprofessional care competencies.

  • Thomas Scattergood Foundation
    • $45,000, 3 years September 2018- June, 2022
    • $25,000, 1 year June 2017

The Thomas Scattergood Foundation provided more than four years of funding to support the launch of the Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference and to establish the Jefferson Trauma Education Network (J-TEN). Additionally, the funding allowed the Jefferson Trauma Education Network to provide trauma-specific education and training to professionals, paraprofessionals, students and community members who serve trauma-exposed individuals or engage in communities impacted by trauma, poverty and violence. The Jefferson Trauma Education Network began as the community training arm of the CTC program.

  • Thomas Scattergood Foundation
    • $30,000, 1 year
    • July 2022 – June 2023

The Scattergood Foundation also funded the Southeastern PA Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Trauma-Informed Conflict Resolution Program, a series of conversations between Jefferson Trauma Education Network and SEPTA in response to SEPTA’s articulated need to improve culture, safety, and interpersonal communication among its workforce. Specifically, they aim to address the growing number and intensity of conflicts among employees and the need for leadership intervention and discipline. Internally, SEPTA has a team of employees who have begun the development of a conflict resolution training. SEPTA seeks Jefferson Trauma Education Network’s support in contributing to the development of a more robust, trauma-informed peer-conflict resolution program. With continued support from the Scattergood Foundation, Jefferson Trauma Education Network, in collaboration with SEPTA employees, are building an online trauma-sensitive asynchronous course to be disseminated across SEPTA.  

  • Caplan Foundation                                        
    • $45,000, 1 year                                              
    • July 2022 – June 2023   
  • Caroline A. Buck Foundation
    • $120,000, 2 years
    • July 2022-June 2024     

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood and the Caroline A. Buck Foundation are supporting the standardization of a trauma-informed pre-certification resource parent curriculum. Nationally, there are no standardized curriculums for foster care resource parent training that are culturally relevant and trauma-informed, and that encompass local and state regulatory requirements for pre-certification and maintenance training. All evidence-informed and standardized trauma-informed curriculum lack consideration for local and state requirements. Organizations across Philadelphia and the resource families they support do not have the capacity to add these intensive additional training courses on top of the local and state requirements. A comprehensive and standardized curriculum that is culturally relevant and trauma-informed, with a specific focus on older youth, will enhance the preparedness of resource parents to support the complex needs of youth in our foster care system to decrease placement disruptions and promote youth healing and wellbeing.

  • Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity Grant Program
    • Providence Center
    • $50,000, 1 year
    • September 2019-August 2020  

The Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity funded Providence Center to develop a Trauma Ambassadors Program aimed at preparing youth to lead trauma-informed trainings within their communities. Providence Center engaged with Jefferson Trauma Education Network as subject matter experts. Jefferson Trauma Education Network provided training to the staff and teens at Providence Center, assisted in the development and implementation of community presentations, consulted on developing program assessments, and worked with Providence Center to review the data and make program revisions at the end of the project.

  • Methodist Foundation
    • $25,000, 1 year
    • September, 2019-August, 2020 

Furness High School administration identified four fundamental concerns within their community: (1) a lack of training and demonstrated competencies among school personnel to address the trauma-related needs of students; (2) a dearth of behavioral health supports within the school, as well as poor access to community supports for students and families presenting with higher level clinical needs; (3) shortages of basic necessities among the student body, including clothes, hygiene products, and school supplies; and (4) a lack of vocational training opportunities for students. Furness engaged the Methodist Foundation for support to meet these needs. In this project, Fortifying Furness High School: Addressing the Trauma-Related Needs of Students, the Methodist Foundation provided funding to Jefferson Trauma Education Network to (1) expand capacity of school personnel to understand and address trauma-related needs of students, (2) grow the school’s capacity to address clinical behavioral health needs of students, (3) address basic needs of students, and (4) offer vocational training opportunities to students. Funding was used to place a Jefferson Trauma Education Network and Community and Trauma Counseling faculty member in Furness for the academic year, along with two counseling internship students. The team collaborated with Furness administration and community partners to meet the funding objectives and develop a sustainability plan.        

Publications

The Jefferson Trauma Education Network team publish articles related to our three primary areas of focus. This list provides examples of recent publications.

  • Cunningham, A.T., Felter, J., Smith, K.R., Sifri, R., Patel, A., Kelly, E. (2023). Primary care practice teams’ burnout and commitment to primary care after 18 months of providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 36(6). https://doi.org/10.3122/jabfm.2022.220226R1
  • Felter, J., Chung, H. L., Guth, A., & DiDonato, S. (2023). Implementation and outcomes of the trauma ambassadors program: A case study of trauma-informed youth leadership development. Child Adolesc Soc Work J. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00910-z
  • Felter, J. M., DiDonato, S., Johnson, N., Moh, Y. S., Richardson, A., & Czerny, A. (2022). Creating sanctuary: A programmatic approach for trauma integration in counselor education. Counselor Education and Supervision, 61, 391– 403. https://doi.org/10.1002/ceas.12249
  • Felter, J., Baker, A., Lieberman, L., Fein, J., Reidy, C. & Showstark, M. (2022). Adverse childhood experiences and trauma-informed care: Raising awareness, curricular integration, and global implications. Journal of Physician Assistant Education, 33(3), 264–269.
  • Felter, J. M., Wycoff, K. L., Hass, R. W., & Page, A. P. (2022). Trauma-informed interprofessional education: Preliminary evaluation of building student capacity for system-wide collaboration. Families, Systems, & Health, 40(4), 449–462. https://doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000761
  • Rene, R., Cherson, M., Rannazzisi, A., Felter, J., Silverio, A., & Cunningham, A. (2022). Transitioning from in-person to telemedicine within primary care behavioral health during COVID-19. Population Health Management. DOI: 10.1089/pop.2021.0292
  • LaRosa, J., Doran, C., Guth, A., Varshney, K., Anaele, B., Davis, K., DiDonato, S., Romney, M., Keddem, S., & Frasso, R. (2021). Life during COVID-19: The student experience. Pedagogy in Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1177/23733799211017562
  • Becker-Haimes, E., Wislocki, K., DiDonato, S., & Jensen-Doss, A. (2021). Predictors of clinician-reported self-efficacy in treating trauma-exposed youth. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22688
  • Becker-Haimes, E.M., Wislocki, K., DiDonato, S., Beidas, R.S., & Jensen-Doss, A. (2021). Youth trauma histories are associated with under-diagnosis and under-treatment of co-occurring youth psychiatric symptoms. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2021.1923020
  • Centrone, W., Greenman, W., Zavala Thompson, C.E., & DiDonato, S. (2021, May). A Center of Excellence model for serving marginalized youth and young adults. International Psychology Bulletin. http://div52.net/ipb-2021-25-2/
  • DiDonato, S. & Berkowitz, S.J. (2018). Childhood stress and trauma. In Driver, D. & Thomas, S. (Eds.). Severe Childhood Psychiatric Disorders. Elveiser.
  • Felter, J., DiDonato, S., Baker, A., Hass, R., & Gorenberg, M. (Fall 2017). Using trauma case-based learning to inspire interprofessional readiness among future health professionals. Collaborative Healthcare: Interprofessional practice, education, and evaluation, 8(2), 3-5.