Expanding Resources and Services for Children and Youth

Exposed to Domestic Violence

Approximately 15.5 million children are exposed to domestic violence every year. Nationwide, nearly half of all residents of domestic violence shelters supported through the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program (FVPSA Program) are children. These children, youth, and their parents need quality services to address the trauma they have experienced and to break the cycle of violence. The FVPSA Program iscommitted toexpanding comprehensive services for children and youth exposed to domestic violenceensuring that every child receives a trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate response to the violence they have experienced.

In Fiscal Year 2010, the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) awarded FVPSA grants to four statewide capacity building projects and one national technical assistance provider. These five grantees serve as leaders for expanding a broader network for support, developing evidence-based interventions for children, youth and parents exposed to domestic violence, and building national implementation strategies that will lead to local improvements in domestic violence programs and othercommunity based interventions.

State Projects Overview

Four State Domestic Violence Coalitions will lead statewide efforts to improve practice:

  • The New Jersey Coalition For Battered Women will expand an established model program for children who have been exposed to domestic violence to reach more communities. The Peace: A Learned Solution (PALS) program provides children with creative arts therapy to help them heal from exposure to domestic violence. In addition, the grantee will adapt PALS for adolescents who have been exposed to domestic violence.
  • The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence launched the Growing Together Project, which will increase the capacity of Wisconsin domestic violence programs, particularly those serving under-represented or culturally specific populations, to support non-abusing parents and mitigate the impact of exposure to domestic violence on their children. The intensive project will be in three culturally specific communities of which two are Native American and one serving Hispanic women.
  • The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault will improve services and responses to Alaska's Families through the Safe Alaska Family Team (SAFT) project by child protection, domestic violence and Tribal family service delivery systems though cross education, development of an integrated training curriculum and policy, and creation of a community-based multi-disciplinary team in four Alaskan communities: Dillingham, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Kodiak. The first year of the SAFT project focused on assessment of community needs, planning and development. Subsequent years will focus on the implementation of new, innovative and/or collaborative practices and evaluating the efficacy and impact of those changes and identifyingfuture opportunities and challenges.
  • The Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence launched the Resilient Families Idaho project. The overarching goal of the Resilient Families Idaho project is to build and sustain staff and agency capacity in delivering trauma-informed, developmentally sensitive, parent-child services for non-abusive parents, children, and youth affected by domestic violence and other trauma. Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: ACurriculum for DV Advocateswas revised and is in use by the selected project sites in Blackfoot, Nampa and Pocatello. Counselors were trained in Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and received supplemental training in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) which are both evidence-based programs.

National Technical Assistance& Resource Development Overview

Futures Without Violence will serve as a national support network for the domestic violence field and the four Enhancing Services for Children and Youth grantees. Theywill improve technical assistance and resource development for domestic violence programs and allied organizations serving children and youth by convening expert advisors on services for children and youth, identifying evidence-based and promising practices, identifying and developing training and technical assistance resources, and building standards of quality practice.