The Seal Means You Can Prove It.
The Seal Means You Can Prove It.
The people you serve deserve to know the infrastructure is there — not just the intention. The organizations and individuals who support your work are asking harder questions about whether your practices hold up under scrutiny. And the staff doing this work every day deserve to know the organization around them is actually built for it.
"Trauma-informed" has become a marketing phrase. The Five Ives™ Certification Program makes it a verifiable standard.
The Five Ives™ Certification Program is the endpoint of real work — not a shortcut to a credential. We offer training intensives, leadership coaching, and organizational capacity building to prepare your team for the audit. The certification is what you earn when that work is done and independently verified.
If the people you serve have experienced trauma, or your staff regularly absorb the weight of others' hardest moments, this program is built for you.
Certification is meaningful because it is earned through evidence — not self-report.
Your grant dollars are going to an organization that doesn't just train staff on trauma — it has built the policies, supervision structures, and leadership systems to sustain trauma-informed practice over time. Not a one-time event. A verified standard.
The organization handling their case, care, or crisis has been independently audited. The staff are trained. The protocols exist. The culture has been evaluated. They are in a place that takes this seriously.
A Five Ives™ seal signals that this is an organization that invests in staff wellbeing and sustainable practice — not one that burns people out while posting about self-care. A recruiting advantage in a tight labor market.
Your staff have documented training in handling traumatic disclosures, maintaining composure, and protecting the people they serve. That certification is auditable proof for the partners and clients you work with — and a differentiator you can communicate upstream.
The training wasn't the problem. The infrastructure was.
Certification exists because "we care about this" is not the same as "we've built systems that prove it." The seal is for organizations that have done the harder work — and want their staff, their funders, and the people they serve to be able to see that.
Co-Founders, Five Ives™
Each tier reflects where your organization is in the work — and what your stakeholders can see.
Tier 1 You have committed to the work and are in process.
- Currently enrolled in the certification program
- Staff receiving trauma-informed training
- Leadership in active coaching
- Signals to stakeholders that trauma-informed practice is a real organizational priority
- Seal may be displayed during the program
Tier 2 You have completed the program and met the standard.
- Completed the full certification curriculum
- Submitted and passed independent evidence review
- External audit completed by Five Ives™ representative
- Met minimum scoring criteria across all five rubric domains
- Seal valid for three years with annual reviews
Tier 3 You have gone above and beyond the standard.
- All Verified requirements met
- Scored above distinction threshold with minimal partial indicators
- Demonstrates exemplary leadership, staff support systems, and policy infrastructure
- Recognized as a model organization in trauma-informed practice
- Seal valid for three years with annual reviews
The certification program is flexible — 6 to 12 months depending on your organization's size, complexity, and existing infrastructure. Organizations with significant trauma-informed work already in place can move through the process efficiently.
Before anything else, we assess where your organization actually is. We review existing training, policies, supervision structures, and documentation against the Five Ives™ certification rubric to identify what's already in place and what needs to be built.
For organizations that need foundational trauma-informed training, we offer intensives to get your staff and leadership ready. For organizations that have existing trauma-informed work, we help you document and systematize what you're already doing.
Approximately 2–3 hours of leadership engagement during this phase, plus any training or internal work needed based on your gap analysis.
Your leaders work through the certification rubric with a Five Ives™ coach — building and documenting trauma-informed practices across every domain: hiring, onboarding, supervision, policy, culture, and care delivery. This is where the actual infrastructure gets built.
Coaching sessions are practical and focused. Each session addresses a specific policy area or domain and produces a working deliverable your organization keeps. We work within your capacity — not on top of it.
Approximately 6–8 hours of leadership engagement across this phase, typically spread over several months. Internal documentation work happens between sessions at your pace.
Your organization submits documented proof of trauma-informed practices across all five rubric domains. A Five Ives™ representative conducts an independent evidence review — and where applicable, an on-site or virtual audit of your facilities and operations.
Based on your rubric scores, your organization is awarded Participant (during program), Verified, or Distinguished certification. If one or more domains fall short, we provide a written remediation roadmap and a follow-up review window.
This is what makes the seal meaningful. The standard is real and independently verified.
Certified organizations complete a structured annual review each year — not a full re-audit, but a documented check that standards are being maintained. Annual reviews include documentation review, protocol checks, and a written maintenance report.
Full recertification occurs every three years. Organizations that maintain their annual reviews and keep their practices current typically find recertification significantly less intensive than the original process.
Annual reviews are priced separately and scoped based on organizational size and complexity.
We publish our scoring criteria. Download a sample of the rubric to see the five domains, the indicators we evaluate, and what "Verified" actually means in practice. No surprises about the standard before you begin.
Certification investment varies based on organizational size, complexity, and how much infrastructure is already in place. Organizations typically fund this program through grants, operational budgets, or cohort pricing with partner organizations.
- Rubric orientation and gap assessment
- Leadership coaching through the certification process
- Evidence review and external audit
- Verified or Distinguished seal
- Annual review included for Year 1
- Staff and supervisor certification training
- LMS development and certification administration (if applicable)
- Leadership coaching and policy development
- New hire onboarding integration
- Organizational audit and certification seal
- Annual reviews and recertification pathway
Annual reviews starting at $9,500 depending on organizational size. Full recertification audits every three years are scoped individually. Cohort pricing available for groups of up to five organizations. Grant language and research support available for organizations pursuing funding.
For organizations that need individual staff to hold verified trauma-informed care certificates — for compliance, client reporting, or professional credentialing — Five Ives™ offers individual staff certification as part of an enterprise engagement.
Individual certificates are issued to staff who complete the required training sequence and pass competency assessments across the relevant domains. Available exclusively as part of an organizational engagement — not as a standalone individual purchase.
Enterprise packages are custom-scoped based on staffing volume, training format, and timeline.
The Five Ives™ Framework and Staff Sustainability System™ are grounded in established research across trauma-informed care, organizational change, and research on how chronic workplace stress affects people in high-demand roles — including the Job Demands-Resources model, Maslach's burnout research, Kotter's change framework, and moral injury literature. The certification rubric was built from that research base and evaluated through practitioner experience across healthcare, education, nonprofits, and public safety.
Unlike self-report certification programs, Five Ives™ certification requires an external audit — your practices are evaluated against observable, documented criteria, not self-assessment. The founders bring more than two decades of combined experience in this work, and the rubric is published for transparency so organizations know exactly what the standard requires before they begin.
Yes — intentionally. The Staff Sustainability System™ is Five Ives' flagship framework for building organizational capacity under chronic pressure. Trauma-informed certification is the verified proof layer: it documents that your organization has built the infrastructure the Staff Sustainability System™ develops.
Many organizations begin with the Staff Sustainability System™ and pursue certification once the structural work is in place. Others pursue certification as a standalone goal. Both paths work. If your organization is in crisis mode, we typically recommend stabilization through the Staff Sustainability System™ before beginning the certification process — certification requires organizational focus that acute crisis can prevent.
Possibly — but it depends on the severity. The certification program requires approximately 10 hours of leadership engagement over the program period, plus internal documentation and policy work your organization completes between sessions. Most organizations find that internal work happens alongside existing operations rather than on top of them. What it does require is consistent leadership attention and follow-through.
If your organization is in acute crisis, that focus often isn't available yet. We recommend starting with the Staff Sustainability System™ first — it is designed to stabilize high-pressure organizations and create the capacity that makes the certification process possible.
Verified and Distinguished seals are valid for three years. During that time, certified organizations complete a structured annual review each year — not a full re-audit, but a documented verification that standards are being maintained. Annual reviews include documentation review, protocol checks, and a written maintenance report.
Full recertification occurs every three years. Recertification pricing is scoped based on organizational size and the extent of changes since the original certification. Organizations that have maintained their annual reviews typically find recertification significantly less intensive than the original process.
If one or more domains do not meet the certification threshold, Five Ives™ provides a written remediation roadmap with specific required actions. Organizations have 90 days to address identified gaps before a follow-up verification review. The initial audit fee includes the remediation roadmap and one follow-up review. If an additional remediation attempt is needed, an additional fee applies.
A few paths worth considering:
- Grant funding. There are national and regional funders specifically interested in trauma-informed organizational development. We can help with grant language and cost documentation.
- Cohort pricing. Up to five organizations can go through the certification program together at a reduced rate.
- Start with a training intensive. We offer trauma-informed care training as a first step before committing to the full certification program. Contact us for pricing.
- On-demand courses. Our on-demand training resources are an accessible starting point for teams building toward certification. Visit the On-Demand page for current offerings.
Yes. We offer cohort pricing for groups of up to five organizations certifying together. You receive shared training and group coaching alongside individualized support for your organization's specific context. Contact us to discuss cohort structure and pricing.
What makes Five Ives different is how flexible and responsive they are. Jessica and Lauren tailored everything to the unique needs of our teams and created an environment that felt personable, safe, and easy to engage in. Staff consistently shared that the sessions were approachable, immediately usable, and gave them concrete tools to apply right away.
They bring both expertise and humanity: they meet you where you are, customize what they deliver, and leave you with strategies your staff will actually use.
More Than a Tagline?
Request a proposal and we will put together a custom scope for your organization — no pressure, no sales tactics, just a clear picture of what this looks like for you.
Request a Proposal → Download Sample RubricNo sales call required to start the conversation. We respond to all inquiries within two business days.
