Brooklyn Youth Healing Initiative

Neighbors in Action, a project of Justice Innovation Inc. d/b/a the Center for Justice Innovation, seeks to implement the Brooklyn Youth Healing Initiative (BYHI). The purpose of BYHI is to implement a holistic, evidence-informed, and community-driven strategy to build the capacity of the Central Brooklyn, New York community to support children exposed to violence, reduce the negative impacts of exposure to violence for children and youth, and disrupt ongoing cycles of violence. Integrating evidence-based practices throughout, BYHI will: 1) provide youth with individual therapy and trauma-informed groups; 2) engage families in group therapy; 3) engage youth in school-based violence prevention workshops; 4) promote and facilitate youth access to prosocial activities; 5) facilitate family nights and engage youth and families in other community events; and 6) develop and implement arts-based community engagement programming.

A critical aspect of BYHI is its focus on engaging both youth and their families. By involving families in the healing process, creating a Youth Advisory Board to guide the project, and developing a robust Collaborative Team of community partners, the program ensures a holistic approach to addressing the root causes of crime and violence, such as poverty, trauma, and systemic inequities. Youth and family voice will be centered in all program activities.
Project activities will include creating a Collaborative Team comprised of government agencies, community-based organizations, schools, and community residents to guide the project; creating a Youth Advisory Board to amplify youth voices in the project's design; developing a Central Brooklyn Community Action Plan to reduce the impacts of violence on youth and the community; providing individual and group therapy for youth; providing group family therapy for families impacted by violence; conducting school-based violence prevention workshops; hosting and facilitating access to community events; and employing arts-based engagement practices. Youth and families who serve on the Youth Advisory Board and/or Collaborative Team will be compensated for their expertise as community consultants.

Youth ages 11-18 from the Central Brooklyn communities of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights who have been exposed to violence or are at risk of violence exposure along with their families are the intended beneficiaries of this project. Expected outcomes include, but are not limited to, increased awareness of the impacts of exposure to violence and trauma, increased engagement in therapeutic services and prosocial activities, decreased trauma symptoms, improved coping skills, and enhanced family and community capacity to support children exposed to violence and disrupt cycles of violence.