The National Center for Adoption Competency Mental Health Services (National Center) works to improve mental health outcomes for children and families impacted by the child welfare system by:

  • Strengthening collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems
  • Building and enhancing workforce competency
  • Expanding access to permanency-adoption competent services

Whether you are a child‑serving professional looking to strengthen your practice through training and resources, or you are seeking hands‑on technical assistance to support your State, Tribe, or territory, the National Center offers tools and support to help you build adoption competent skills—grounded in understanding the impacts of loss, trauma, relationships, and identity on children and families.

To support your learning, you can build your skills through training with NTI and deepen your understanding with additional resources available through the National Center’s Knowledge Hub.

Training

The National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) is a practical no-cost training resource designed for professionals supporting children, youth, and families involved in foster care, adoption, guardianship, and kinship care.

What NTI Offers

  • Free, web‑based, self‑paced training
  • Certificate of completion
  • Continuing education (CE) credits available where applicable
  • Practical, real‑world tools that can be applied immediately

Who NTI Is For

NTI offers four specialized training tracks:

Why NTI Matters

NTI helps professionals strengthen their knowledge, skills, and confidence to better serve children, youth, and families. Through NTI, participants can:

  • Deepen understanding of trauma, loss, attachment, and identity
  • Strengthen support for children and families before and after permanency
  • Improve outcomes related to stability, permanency, and long‑term well‑being
  • Enhance cross‑system collaboration and coordination of care
  • Expand access to adoption competent, culturally responsive services

Access training, build your skills, and start applying what you learn right away. Enroll in NTI

Resources

Explore the The National Center Knowledge Hub to access tools, best practices, and evidence‑informed resources that strengthen your ability to provide adoption competent care.