The city of El Paso, TX, is home to approximately 700,000 people, more than three-quarters of them Hispanic or Latino, and one-fourth younger than 18. The Rio Grande flows into El Paso, forming the border between the United States and Mexico. The city is rich in culture and history, but 31 percent of its children live in poverty and face increased risk for violent victimization—including sexual assault, robbery, and gun violence. They cope with a myriad of problems related to violence, from traumatic stress to chronic illness and early mortality. With OJJDP funding, the Border Youth Resiliency Project is working to help El Paso’s youth recover from the trauma many experience in their daily lives.
El Paso’s children are still reeling from a racially motivated mass shooting that took place on a summer morning in 2019, says Cristina Villalobos, Prevention Division Director of El Paso Center for Children, which developed and administers the Border Youth Resiliency Project. A gunman wielding a semi-automatic rifle murdered 23 people at a local Walmart, injuring 22 others and traumatizing thousands more. According to a manifesto he posted online, the gunman targeted El Paso to deter Mexican and other Hispanic people from immigrating to the United States. In a city where Spanish is spoken in nearly two-thirds of homes, many young people still struggle to heal.
“Our youth are still dealing with the aftermath of this massacre. They are working through their anxieties on top of dealing with the pressures of being a teen,” Ms. Villalobos says. Many referrals to the Border Youth Resiliency Project come from area school districts and the city’s Juvenile Probation Department. “We hear youth share how hard it is to be surrounded by pressures such as vaping, gangs, school fights, etc.,” she says. In the last year, an increasing number of the program’s youth have reported experiencing domestic violence and sexual abuse, and some say they are directly affected by violence taking place just over the border in Ciudad Juárez—El Paso’s “sister city,” which is often associated with drug trafficking, gangs, murder, and other forms of violence.
The Border Youth Resiliency Project offers young people “that one-to-one relationship that gives them a safe space to talk,” Ms. Villalobos explains. Using approaches like trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and journaling, counselors help young people share and release traumatic experiences, strengthening their resilience. The project partners with Big Brothers Big Sisters of El Paso for mentoring and family-engagement activities.
OJJDP began funding the Border Youth Resiliency Project in 2021. Since then, the project has provided life skills instruction and counseling to nearly 250 children and youth, and matched 78 with a mentor, Ms. Villalobos says. The project has also hosted more than 300 individuals in family-engagement activities, such as Parent Cafés, where small groups of adults meet to relax, share experiences, and learn about protective factors—attributes that protect them and their children from victimization. This work is yielding impressive results. In the final 6 months of 2023, nearly 99 percent of the project’s youth participants engaged actively in school, participated in recreational activities, and showed improvements in self-esteem and in their relationships with parents and caregivers.
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A 2024 report, Methodological Research to Support the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, describes efforts by OJJDP and the Bureau of Justice Statistics to review and assess the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence and their recommendations for revised approaches. Three design options were reviewed: turning the survey into a supplementary collection of the National Crime Victimization Survey, using a mixed online and face-to-face administration methodology, and using a representative online panel.