Healing With Heart. Advocating With Purpose.
TIC Advocates Mission Statement
TIC Advocates exists to educate, advocate, and prevent through healing-centered, community-driven engagement and measurable social impact. We meet people where they are! In schools, neighborhoods, and systems. Building pathways toward emotional safety, personal growth, and social accountability.
Our mission is to bridge understanding between trauma and behavior, transforming how individuals, families, and institutions respond to pain, conflict, and healing. We believe that healing isn’t soft and it’s revolutionary. We teach trauma’s language so communities can speak it fluently from power. Through education, advocacy, and prevention, we work to restore humanity, dignity, and choice to every person we encounter.
Empowering Chicago Youth Through Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma-Informed-Care (TIC) Advocates is a Chicago-based nonprofit social impact organization dedicated to advancing Trauma-Informed education, prevention and healing-centered services. Our work is rooted in lived experience, community voice, and measurable outcomes. We design programs that move beyond awareness to create real change supporting youth, families and systems in building safety, resilience and accountability.
Program Options
"Beyond The Moment" 1-Day Intensive Workshop (90 minutes)
A power-packed introduction to trauma-informed awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation. This single-day intensive helps youth and adults recognize trauma responses in real time and develop grounding techniques they can use anywhere. Participants walk away understanding how trauma impacts the brain, body, and behavior including how choice, safety, and compassion create change.
Perfect for schools, youth groups, and community events that need an immediate spark of awareness and connection.
"Growth Habit": Building Emotional Awareness. 4-Week Program
This 4-week series goes deeper, guiding Reclaimers through self-reflection, stress-response awareness, and healthy communication. Each week combines creative activities, discussion, and skill-building focused on emotional literacy and conflict de-escalation. Ideal for schools or community organizations seeking consistent, short-term engagement with long-term impact.
"Happy Healthy Whole" 10-Week Experience
Our signature curriculum: a trauma-informed, SEL-based program designed to help teens and young adults identify patterns, heal relationships, and strengthen self-worth. Over ten weeks, participants explore topics like boundaries, empathy, identity, healthy relationships, and self-regulation. Each graduate earns the Happy, Healthy, Whole Certification, representing growth, awareness, and readiness to lead with heart. Perfect for schools and organizations ready to invest in full transformation.
"Be the Shift" Peer-Led Anti-Bullying Certification
This youth-driven certification turns bystanders into changemakers. Through guided activities, peer discussions, and trauma-informed coaching, participants learn to recognize harm, speak up safely, and support peers in crisis. Graduates become certified Peer Advocates. Trained to lead prevention initiatives and promote accountability in their schools and communities. Created to build leadership, empathy, and real-world impact among youth.
"Elaren" Parent or Staff Professional Development Workshop
This training connects parents, teachers, and service providers to the realities young people face. Participants learn trauma-informed approaches to discipline, communication, and emotional safety. The workshop bridges the gap between generations, systems, and communities. Replacing judgment with understanding and reaction with response. Essential for adults who want to create safe spaces where others feel seen, heard, and supported.
"Soul Excavation, Understanding the identities we built to carry life"
A guided healing and self-discovery experience designed to help individuals uncover the beliefs, experiences, wounds, strengths, and survival strategies that have shaped their lives. Through reflection, discussion, education, and personal exploration, participants are encouraged to examine what lies beneath the surface, identify barriers to healing, and reconnect with their authentic selves.
Grounded in trauma-informed principles, Soul Excavation creates a safe space for participants to explore their stories without judgment while developing greater self-awareness, emotional insight, resilience, and personal empowerment. The process recognizes that healing begins when we are willing to understand not only what happened to us, but also how those experiences have influenced the way we think, feel, relate, and move through the world.
Participants leave with a deeper understanding of themselves, practical tools for growth, and a renewed sense of purpose, connection, and possibility.
Workforce Development
Resume building, interview preparation, employment search, skill development.
Why It Matters
Chicago youth are carrying more than what meets the eye. Beyond the Moment creates a safe, relatable space for students to unpack, express, and transform what’s heavy without judgment, lectures, or shame.
*READ OUR BLOG BELOW FOR FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF AVAILABLE PROGRAMS.
We are committed to promoting dignity, empowerment, and inclusivity for all, irrespective of their past experiences. Our goal is to transform how communities understand and respond to trauma by creating safe healing-centered spaces where youth, families and systems learn empathy, accountability and emotional-awareness. Turning survival skills into life skills.
