Project Partnering to Effectively Reduce the Impact of Violence to Children in Kalamazoo (2010 to 2016)

Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Safe Start Promising Approaches Initiative

Southwest Michigan Children's Trauma Assessment Center, in partnership with New Genesis, the Kalamazoo Boys and Girls club and several other community agencies, has been awarded a $1 million, four-year research grant through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Safe Start Promising Approaches Initiative.

The grant will fund Project Partnering to Effectively Reduce the Impact of Violence to Children in Kalamazoo—Project PERK for short. Partners in the project will first identify children exposed to violence in Kalamazoo City/Township. Families will either by placed in the control or treatment group. For treatment families, a tiered-intervention approach (parent groups, child groups, referrals) will be used to reduce the impact of that violence on the children's neurodevelopmental, relational and emotional progress.

Partners or other caregivers and community agencies will be involved and trained in trauma-informed practices to provide services to children and their families. In addition, key leaders from the primary agencies that serve Kalamazoo children will participate in community board meetings to plan, develop, and implement strategies and new policies to better serve children exposed to violence.