Project R.I.S.E

Project RISE (Responding and Intervening through Strength and Empowerment) will work to build the capacity of families and communities by developing and implementing prevention and early intervention strategies at an individual and community level to increase the resiliency of children and youth exposed to violence.

These strategies will target the three components of community trauma (interpersonal, structural and historic/intergenerational) by building connections and social cohesion that include: Hope and Healing Circles, a culturally responsive practice with trained residents facilitating community support groups centered on racial stress and trauma;  PLAAY (Preventing Long-Term Aggression and Anger in Youth), an evidence-based violence reduction intervention program for youth 10-17; TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Interventions),an evidence-based trauma intervention strategy; Resilience Navigation and Connection Circles, practices grounded in restorative justice that focus on felt safety, connection and regulation; and State of the Young People Collective, a youth-led and youth-centered constellation of spaces and opportunities for young people to connect and participate authentically.

Project RISE will build on existing local and federal efforts in Jacksonville’s Urban Core (Health Zone 1 (HZ1), an area with the largest percentage of minority residents (81%), highest poverty rates (30%), the lowest percentage of population with a high school education (35.7%), and the highest death rate. Eleven percent of Jacksonville’s children live in HZ1 but represent more than 30% of all children in foster care. Nearly half of the 2020 homicides occurred in HZ1. Children and youth living in HZ1 endure intergenerational racial stress, trauma, and inequities in all aspects of their health and well-being throughout their life course

The overarching goal of RISE is to build the capacity of families and communities to help children exposed to violence. This will be accomplished through a multipronged application of strategies that will accomplish the objectives of 1) improving family and community responses to children exposed to violence; 2) increasing protective factors to prevent juvenile violence, delinquency, and victimization and reducing the impact of exposure to violence on children; and 3) helping communities to develop, design, and implement prevention and early intervention strategies to support children exposed to violence.

Project RISE will be under the leadership and guidance of the Planning Team, a diverse, multidisciplinary consortium of system leaders, community stakeholders, providers, and families and youth in the community that will provide the oversight and accountability to ensure transparency in systemic and programmatic intervention implementation for RISE.