OJJDP FY 2021 Strategies to Support Children Exposed to Violence. Category 2: Training and Technical Assistance

Childhood exposure to violence is increasingly recognized as a public health issue with far-reaching consequences for individuals, families, communities, and society. Approximately two out of three children and youth ages 17 and younger have been exposed to some form of violent victimization at home or in the community; 50% have had more than one exposure; and one in six have had six or more exposures to violence (Finkelhor, et. al, 2015). Exposure to violent events, particularly chronic experiences of violence, can be traumatic for youth. For example, toxic stress caused by prolonged exposure to violent trauma in childhood can significantly disrupt positive brain development, placing children at greater risk for adverse outcomes over the course of development (Perfect, et. al., 2016). Evidence suggests that one in five high school students has been bullied at school, while cyberbullying has increased amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and can result in additional perpetration of and exposure to violence (Armitage, 2021).

Increasing evidence of the prevalence and impact of childhood exposure to violence, including significant increases in gun violence, continues to challenge communities and service systems (e.g., behavioral health, public health, education, health care, justice, and child welfare) to consider the roles they play in addressing this public health issue. The call for a comprehensive approach to childhood violence includes attention to individual- and family-level interventions as well as a broad array of community-level efforts, including community violence intervention (CVI) strategies to address the current epidemic of gun violence that threatens neighborhoods and communities.

Through the Children Exposed to Violence Training and Technical Assistance Center (CEVTTAC), the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is poised to continue supporting current and new CEV sites in achieving project objectives related to family and community capacity building to more effectively respond to children exposed to violence and increase protective factors across all levels of a child’s social ecology by implementing individual- and relational/family-level interventions and community- and societal-level strategies, including CVI. The AIR team will ensure that the following three primary CEVTTAC objectives are achieved: (a) individualized targeted coaching that meets the CEV project sites where they are in terms of the implementation life cycle, starting with implementation readiness; (b) information sharing and peer-driven community learning (i.e., communities of practice) to encourage peer-to-peer learning; and (c) building CEV site implementation capacity through needs-driven targeted content training and capacity building.

The American Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences (AIR’s) efforts for Year 3 of the CEVTTAC will address the needs and grant demands of the Children Exposed to Violence (CEV) grantees through capacity-building training and technical assistance (TTA) grounded in evidence-based approaches to reduce exposure to violence and address the resulting trauma and other challenges occurring from previous exposure to violence. AIR will deliver TTA in collaboration with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and a team of subject matter experts. AIR has decades of experience carrying out nationally recognized research and evaluations and providing TTA to professionals in justice-focused fields.

AIR’s vision for TTA in Year 3 is comprehensive, proving effective across years of delivering quality assistance to grantees and jurisdictions. In Year 3 AIR proposes mechanisms for CEVTTAC to instill confidence and spur innovation among CEV project sites by (a) being the trusted source for high-quality and cutting-edge research on what works to reduce and prevent youth violence and support youth and families exposed to violence; (b) developing opportunities for information sharing and peer-to-peer learning on implementing evidence-based approaches addressing the challenges faced by many community violence prevention and intervention initiatives; and (c) sustaining effective violence interventions and prevention practices so they become business-as-usual before grant dollars are exhausted.

AIR will continue to ensure that the following three primary objectives of the CEVTTAC are achieved: (a) targeted TTA and coaching that meets the CEV project sites where they are in the implementation life cycle; (b) information sharing and peer-driven community learning to encourage peer-to-peer learning; and (c) implementation capacity building for CEV project sites. CEVTTAC TTA objectives are designed to support grantees in achieving the Strategies to Support Children Exposed to Violence program objectives to increase protective factors that prevent juvenile violence, delinquency, and victimization; improve family and community responses to children exposed to violence; and increase protective factors to prevent juvenile violence, delinquency, and victimization.