Contra Costa Family Justice Alliance Strategies to Support Children Exposed to Violence

The Contra Costa Family Justice Alliance (CCFJA) will lead the Contra Costa Family Justice SKY (Supporting Kids and Youth) initiative. This project aims to build community and organizational capacity among a collaborative of partner agencies to increase equitable implementation of evidence-based practices that address the impacts of abuse and exposure to violence on children and youth from marginalized communities. The SKY initiative will support children, youth, and families from historically marginalized and underserved communities in Contra Costa County, California. CCFJA will collaborate with subrecipients including the Contra Costa Child Abuse Prevention Council, a nonprofit focused on child abuse prevention, and five population-specific service agencies, including Narika, Nepali Community Advocates, The Latina Center, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and Fierce Advocates. Each of these culturally-specific partners provides direct services to Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color and immigrant families. The project's primary activities include convening the coalition of seven core partner agencies, the SKY Team, to discuss, learn, and create a comprehensive plan to implement trauma-informed, evidence-based practices to address exposure to violence for children and youth in linguistically and culturally-appropriate ways for marginalized communities. The SKY Team partners will bring culturally-specific perspectives to the project, with the ability to adapt evidence-based practices to the communities they serve and highlight the barriers that prevent families from accessing services. The SKY Team will identify and engage smaller grassroots groups to raise awareness about the impacts of exposure violence for children, organize and host community learning events to increase public awareness about children exposed to violence, and help other grassroots groups access evidence-based practices. Outcomes will include increased knowledge, adaptation, and access to evidence-based practices for marginalized communities and among the community-based organizations serving those communities; increased understanding among community stakeholders and systems partners of barriers to service families face; and improved safety and wellness for children and families exposed to and impacted by violence.