Direct Funding of Programs that
Help Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

YWCA Children's Domestic Violence Program

YWCA Children’s Domestic Violence Services is a ten-week education and skill based curriculum for children and their non-abusive caregivers.  These services are delivered to families in their home after they have left the abusive environment and achieved housing stability. We know of no other program like this in our area.

The curriculum is aimed at reducing the anxiety surrounding the domestic violence experience and teaching children effective coping skills. Working with the children to create and execute a developmentally appropriate safety plan, children learn to identify unsafe situations based on their experience, and strategize with the caregiver and staff on how to stay safe.  Children often feel more much relief to learn that the violence was not their fault.

The Program helps children develop positive conflict resolution skills.  Children are also given information and encouragement to use the social support networks in their communities, to break the isolation they may have suffered and to participate in activities and events of interest to them. Children gain an increase in self-esteem and emotional resilience as well as improved personal problem-solving skills that translate into greater success in social environments such as school, play and family life. 

Domestic Abuse Women's Network (DAWN) Kids Club

Kid’s Club is a 10 session support/information group children 6 to 9 years of age who have been exposed to a domestically violent home.  The custodial parent will be included in several of the group sessions with their children.  We may also conduct several groups just for the parents. Each session will follow a pre-set curriculum designed to address a number of specific issues. 

Kid’s Club programs are conducted in a safe, trusting and confidential atmosphere, by an appropriately credentialed facilitator, which allows the children to share their experiences of family violence.  These programs emphasize putting the blame completely on the perpetrators of violence and reducing the shame associated with the violence the children have witnessed and/or experience. It is intended that all children in these programs learn that it is never the child’s fault when parents fight.  These programs focus on helping children to define domestic violence as unacceptable and to recognize that they are not alone in their experience.  Children learn to protect themselves with concrete plans of action in the event of additional family violence. These programs have been shown to decrease the stress, anxiety and depression experienced by these children and to make them feel safer. 

Safe & Bright Futures Pilot Project

It was recommended by the Safe & Bright Futures team that a specialized response team be developed through a pilot project.  This integrated team would blend the expertise of the domestic violence advocacy and mental health fields into a coordinated system of care.  The team would be comprised of community-based children’s domestic violence advocates and mental health clinicians.  The team members would provide direct wrap around services to families.  They would also enhance linkages and access of their agencies’ services to the families served by the response team.

This model should readily facilitate the participation of parents and children by:

Engaging families who are have identified domestic violence as an issue and who are motivated to seek assistance.

• Providing services that are voluntary.
• Empowering parents to participate in an assessment and planning process.  Parents would be encouraged to lead in planning what services or activities would best support their children and family’s needs.
• Utilizing community-based team members who are outside of the court system to maintain confidentiality of information shared by the domestic violence survivor.
• Connecting families with co-located specialized service providers is an empirically proven way to provide support and interventions

It is proposed that the pilot project be co-located with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Protection Order Advocacy program, located at the Regional Justice Center in Kent. 

The initial phase of the pilot project, to run January through June 2007, will develop and field test assessment tools, referral processes and an evaluation plan so that when funding is secured (intended for summer 2007), the project is ready well thought-out and ready to proceed quickly.