Trauma-Informed Care when Working with Children & Youth
Topic(s): 
Ageing and Older Adults
Health
National Social Work Month
NBASW-ATTSNB
Trauma
Violence
Webinar event date: 
Mar 13, 2026 11:00 am EDT
Webinar link

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Webinar Presenters: 
Tara Pelletier-Silas, BSW, RSW

Tara Pelletier-Silas is a Child Protection Social Worker with five years of frontline experience. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Social Work from St. Thomas University. As a former youth in care, Tara brings a unique perspective to her work, combining lived experience with professional expertise.

In addition to her role in child protection, she is actively involved in advocacy through the New Brunswick Youth in Care Network and the New Brunswick Youth Council. Tara is passionate about youth-centered practice, raising awareness around mental health challenges such as PTSD from childhood trauma, and promoting children's rights.  

Tara is also a proud mother of two daughters and lives in Dalhousie, New Brunswick.

Description

This webinar will bring not only a trauma-informed lens when working with children and youth in care, but will also demonstrate why it's important that social workers and social work technicians are child/youth focused in their roles. Tara Pelletier-Silas brings her personal experience being a former youth in care alongside her front-line expertise to shine a light on the importance of secure connections in social work professionals’ front-line work.

The work social work professionals do with children/youth in care will be long-lasting; there is an opportunity and a responsibility to make a lasting, positive impact where possible. This webinar is a call to social work professionals to shift their perspective when speaking about "behaviours" from a youth/child to symptoms - symptoms of trauma. When social work professionals lead with authenticity, transparency, human connection and validation, social workers are allowing room for these children/youth to heal.

This webinar is intended to help professionals learn about and engage with the following ideas:

  • Trauma-informed understanding of presenting issues (such as recognizing that borderline personality disorder traits often results from trauma & leading with trauma-informed approach)
  • Considerations/realities when working with youth in care from a personal perspective (the impact social work role/involvement can have- good and bad / what's beneath the surface that we forget)
  • The dangers of labelling kids/youth ("challenging" "out of control")
  • The importance of fostering secure connections as a front-line worker (being youth-centred, transparency, validation, advocacy, trust etc.)
  • Holding service providers/care givers and professionals accountable when working with youth in care (working as a team/collaboratively for the child/youth and avoiding tunnel vision).