Crisis Intervention Teams for Youth

CIT-Y is a law enforcement-based, crisis-response and diversion strategy in which specially-trained law enforcement officers respond to calls involving adolescents experiencing behavioral health crises.

Standard CIT training provides information on mental illness, how it affects people in crisis, and how best to respond to crisis situations. While there are some general similarities between adults and youth, there are important and unique distinctions that require specialized knowledge. CIT-Y trains police officers on response techniques that are appropriate for youth.

NCYOJ is excited to offer a number of yearly Train-the-Trainer events. As the CIT-Y curriculum requires specialized knowledge of working as a police officer and clinical training, NCYOJ encourages prospective attendees to apply in pairings that include a law enforcement officer and a clinician. Please see registration details for specific date and location offerings.

If you are interested in partnering with us to host a CIT-Y Train-the-Trainer, please review our host site application.

What are the benefits of becoming a certified trainer?

Certified trainers…

• Have access to the most current training curricula, which is updated biannually.
• Participate in continuing learning activities to support in-depth understanding of best practice for educating adult learners and emerging research on topics covered by the curriculum.
• Collect and report evaluation data to the NCYOJ which is used to inform updates to the training curricula, and highlight practice improvements nationally.

For more detailed information, please contact NCYOJ at ncyoj@prainc.com.