The Facing Trauma toolkit helps youth professionals create safe and supportive environments for children and young people affected by trauma. It offers practical, age-adapted activities to explore trauma, stress, self-care and emotional well-being in everyday youth work practice.
The toolkit
A toolkit on trauma-informed support for children and youth
Our 10 educational posters offer creative ways to support children and young people in understanding trauma, stress, self-care and emotions. Choose your preferred language below each poster and download them for free on StreetSmart Play.
Facing Trauma
Listen to real-life stories from Ezra, Elias, Atid, Satya, Samir and Viktoria. Use the QR codes to access audio and explore their unique coping strategies in challenging situations.
Healing Fairytales
Use familiar fairy tale characters and the bookmark as a gentle story guide to build a fairy tale together and open up conversations about difficult experiences. Help children reflect on their own stories from a safe distance and explore how they can be reshaped.
Stress Discovery Channel
Explore how stress and trauma responses work by using animals that represent fight, flight, freeze and fawn. Help children recognise and better understand their own reactions.
The Self-Care City
Discover a playful self-care journey across six islands in the Self-Care City. Each island offers activities, supported by QR codes with audio guidance, to help children explore which forms of self-care work best for them and reflect on their well-being.
Inside the Brain
Simplify how the brain works in stressful situations by introducing three basic parts: the survival brain, the emotional brain and the thinking brain.
My Support Team
Explore the importance of support networks by identifying people and groups who can help in difficult moments. Encourage children to recognise, reflect on and strengthen their own support system.
Animal Yoga
Combine movement and imagination with yoga poses inspired by animals. Help children relax, release tension and reconnect with their bodies in a playful way.
Mandala Fun
Support mindfulness and creativity through drawing and colouring mandalas. This calming activity helps children relax, focus and express themselves.
Emotion Maze
Guide children through enchanting scenarios and exercises that explore different emotions. This creates space for dialogue, reflection and growing emotional awareness.
Compliments & Talents
Build self-esteem and positive group dynamics by practising giving and receiving compliments. Help children recognise their own strengths and those of others.
Games Manual
Manual on Trauma-Informed Support
The complete manual with all 60+ games and activities.
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Content
- The first section includes activities that complement our 10 educational posters. - The second section features standalone activities organised around the four dimensions of our self-care compass: physical, emotional, social, and psychological well-being. - Each game is accompanied by clear instructions to help you run meaningful and engaging sessions with children and youth. - Additionally, all activities can be accessed via StreetSmart Play using the QR code, ensuring they are easy to integrate into your daily work.
Game Manual - Trauma-Informed Support
The complete manual with over 60 games and activities for trauma-informed youth work practice.
Content
- The first section includes activities that build on and complement the 10 educational posters, helping you deepen key topics in practice. - The second section offers standalone activities organised around four dimensions of well-being: physical, emotional, social and psychological. - Each game comes with clear, step-by-step instructions to help you facilitate safe, engaging and meaningful activities with children and young people. - All activities are also available on StreetSmart Play via QR codes, making them easy to use and integrate into your daily practice. - Choose your preferred language below to access or download the manual for free.
Online Training
Strengthen your trauma-informed youth work practice with five self-paced online training programmes, available for free on StreetSmart Learn in multiple languages. Combining accessible theory with practical tools and examples, the training helps you apply trauma-informed approaches in your daily work. The training follows the four R’s framework: Realise the impact of trauma, Recognise reactions and triggers, Respond with appropriate support strategies, and Resist retraumatisation by creating safe environments.
Introduction • Trauma informed youth work
Discover the Four R’s– Realise, Recognise, Respond & Resist Retraumatisation - of Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) and the six guiding principles for creating trauma-sensitive environments.
Realise • The concept of trauma
Understand trauma, stress, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and their effects on brain functioning.
Recognise • Reactions, symptoms and triggers to trauma
Learn to identify the symptoms, reactions, and triggers of trauma.
Respond • Psychological First Aid & self-care techniques
Explore PsychologicalFirst Aid (PFA), self-care techniques, play-based activities, and creative expression to support children and adolescents.
Resist retraumatisation • Embedding self-care in your youth work practice
Develop strategies to prevent re-traumatisation, address indirect trauma exposure (secondary trauma), and embed self-care practices at personal and organisational levels.
Strengthen your trauma-informed youth work practice through interactive workshops built around the Facing Trauma toolkit. These sessions focus on applying trauma-informed principles in real-life contexts with children and young people.
Training
Our training sessions offer hands-on experience with the toolkit materials, allowing participants to apply them in practice. Participants gain confidence in handling challenging situations and working in a trauma-informed way through practical exercises, reflection and exchange.
Following a train-the-trainer approach, the workshop equips you with the knowledge, skills and materials to integrate these practices into your own work or to train colleagues.
Open Training Day – Discover the Toolkit Facing Trauma
Together with ICOBA, we organise an open training day for professionals who want to work in a more trauma-sensitive way with children and young people.
During this train-the-trainer session, you will explore the toolkit materials — including educational posters, games and audio — and learn how to use them in an accessible and engaging way. You will work with real-life situations, practise different methods and exchange experiences with other professionals.
This is an interactive session focused on doing, reflecting and learning together. You will also discover the online training platform to further deepen your knowledge afterwards.
📍 Location: Jeugdherberg De Blauwput | Leuven 📅 Date: 1 October 2026 | 9h-12h30
Trauma can affect anyone, but its impact on children and young people is often deep and long-lasting. As their brains and emotional skills are still developing, traumatic experiences can affect how they build relationships, regulate emotions and function in daily life.
This impact is often greater in vulnerable contexts, where children and young people are more likely to experience situations such as abuse, neglect, instability, poverty or displacement.
Youth professionals play a key role in supporting them, yet many lack the tools and confidence to respond in a trauma-sensitive way.
In a rapidly changing world, there is a growing need for shared understanding and practical approaches to trauma-informed youth work.To respond to this need, we developed the Facing Trauma toolkit.
It offers a clear and accessible framework to understand trauma across different contexts, combined with practical tools to support children and young people in a safe and meaningful way.
Designed for different age groups, the toolkit explores topics such as trauma, stress, self-care and emotional well-being through engaging and easy-to-use methods.
