Youth Facing Threat and Terror: Supporting Preparedness and Resilience: New Directions for Youth Development, Number 98

When traumatic threats have become commonplace in urban life, and when war and terror have also become part of the day-to-day experience, we must explore how to prepare, as parents or clinicians or community workers. What do we need to know in order to best support children and youth.

Intended to help clinicians, youth and community workers, teachers and parents to support resolution and recovery, this volume examines the effects of threat, stress, and traumatic events, including acts of terror, on children and youth. It addresses not only the individual reprecussions of threat but also a collective approach to threat. This is essential information for youth service professionals, who are often charged with the care of groups of children when a threatening incident occurs, as were the day-care providers and teachers around the World Trade Center on September 11.

It also illustrates important ways to prevent traumatic situations from having lifelong, negative imppacts. These methods involve providing immediate intervention and fostering safety as soon as a threatening incident has occurred as well as preparing children for future threats in ways that enhance feelings of safety rather than raise anxiety.

The contributors to this issue have made a significant commitment to examining how particular approaches to working with children may in fact augment the restoration of joy and, ultimately, hope.