Bradley County Juvenile Court held a 2-day training on Trust-Based Relational Intervention at The Avenue Church in Cleveland. The training was open to the public and presented in partnership with CareEQUIP, by Orphanwise—a local non-profit offering TBRI training, resources, and implementation coaching to the community.
The training had over 150 attendees, including four judges and Juvenile Court staff from several other counties. Guest speaker, Troy McPeak, travelled in from Texas to present both days, and multiple TBRI practitioners travelled from all over Tennessee to assist with breakout groups.
Mr. McPeak has been spearheading the effort to implement TBRI in Juvenile Detention Facilities across the state of Texas.
TBRI utilizes "Connecting Principles to build a relationship of trust with a child or family, Empowering Principles to provide children and families with the tools they need to make prudent decisions, and Correcting Principles to encourage and maintain good behavior." Within each of these principles—which are the three pillars of TBRI—there are strategies and best practices that make implementation in everyday life digestible for Juvenile Court staff, social workers, foster parents, and the like. TBRI is rooted in decades of neuroscience research and attachment theory.
“TBRI is the future of Juvenile Court,” said Judge Andrew Morgan, “not just here in Bradley County, but across the state of Tennessee. We are so thrilled to be the first county in the state to begin full implementation of TBRI principles and best practices, and we have seen first-hand what a profound impact it has on our children and families.”