Give Something Back (“Give Back”) - Supporting Children Exposed to Violence project

The purpose of this project is to to develop coordinated and comprehensive community-based approaches to help children and their families who are exposed to violence build resilience, restore their safety, heal their social and emotional wounds, and prevent future violence and delinquency. Give Back serves children exposed to violence who have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization, including Black, Indigenous and People of Color who have experienced the child welfare system, homelessness, traumatic crimes, and/or four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences.

Give Back operates in sites across the country that have high concentrations of children exposed to violence, including San Bernadino County, California, which has one of the largest populations of children exposed to severe, repeated, traumatic violence in the country.

Give Back has formed a collaborative, multi-disciplinary Children's Assessment Center Task Force consisting of Give Back, San Bernardino County District Attorney, Fontana City Chief of Police, Ontario City Chief of Police, Child and Family Services, County Medical Center, Public Health, Behavioral Health, the Sheriff's Office, Juvenile Court, County Counsel, Children's Network, Inland Empire Health Plan (the largest nonprofit Medicare-Medicaid public health plan in the country), Children's Fund (nonprofit delivering services to children under the responsibility of County departments) the Resiliency Institute for Childhood Adversity and Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.

Give Back and the collaborative will build the capacity of local communities to develop and implement prevention and early intervention strategies to support children exposed to violence and enhance wellness and healing, increase protective factors to reduce the traumatic impact of exposure to violence and prevent future violence, delinquency, and victimization, and support and enhance family and community responses to children exposed to violence.

Give Back will do so by (1) convening its collaborative team of stakeholders to guide and inform the development and implementation of the next phase of its comprehensive plan to address children exposed to violence, (2) implementing trauma-informed, culturally appropriate approaches along the prevention and intervention continuum that fill gaps and address risk factors as well as build on protective factors to prevent and reduce the impact of exposure to violence on children and families in the target communities, and (3) supporting the provision of evidence-based mental health services for children who experience trauma and exposure to violence.