Enhancing Services for Children & Youth Exposed to Domestic Violence

Beginning in 2006, PCADV launched a project to expand the capacity of Pennsylvania domestic violence program staff to address the needs of children and adolescents and to support abused parents efforts to build resiliency in their children. The program is designed to enhance intervention services that are focused on strengthening the abused parent-child relationship, demonstrated to be beneficial in addressing the trauma associated with a childs exposure to a batterer.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, five different programs were chosen as demonstration sites, based on diversity of geography, services offered, type of program, populations served, program quality and competency of the children´s advocate. These programs implemented 12-week home/community-based services to families, focused on helping the non-abusive parent understand and address the needs and behaviors of children resulting from exposure to domestic violence.

The project offers training and materials on the following:

• Child development and the impact of violence on child development
• Trauma-based counseling
• Building relationship with the non-abusive parents about children´s behaviors and needs
• Provision of home-based services
• Understanding of the framework of poverty as the cultural context/background of many domestic violence families, especially those who utilize shelter services
• Family safety planning and related tools
• Educational materials for intervention with children, including brochures and fact sheets on age appropriate behaviors and behaviors that reflect the impact of exposure to violence
• Curricula for support groups on understanding and addressing children´s behaviors and needs