180 Child and Teen Violence Reduction and Treatment Expansion, Hazlet, NJ

Through the Byrne Congressionally Mandated Awards program, the Office of Justice Programs helps communities improve the capacity of local justice systems and supports training and technical assistance programs and other efforts that strategically target local needs. This program is authorized to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010.

The 180 Child and Teen Violence Reduction and Treatment Expansion program aims both to prevent violence and to treat children affected by domestic violence and sexual assault. The project includes two components: prevention, education and crisis intervention services for youth via a free and confidential 24/7 helpline which is aimed at reducing school violence, gang activity, child abuse and neglect, bullying, truancy, substance abuse and dating violence; and critical counseling and creative arts therapies for children who have witnessed and/or endured domestic violence, support groups for teens ages 13-17 who are victims of sexual assault or rape, and crisis intervention services for youth served at hospitals, emergency rooms, or court. Services for the younger children are directed at decreasing the children's risk of repeating the abusive pattern as an adult, reducing the trauma and the self-damaging behaviors, such as substance abuse and delinquency, that can arise in children who have witnessed family violence, and increasing the youths' coping skills and self-esteem. NCA/NCF