D e p a r t m e n t o f H e a l t h a n d H u m a n S e r v i c e s / A d m i n i s t r a t i o n f o r Ch i l d r e n a n d F a m i l i e s
Administration on Children, Youth and Families / Family and Youth Services Bureau
Expanding Resources and Services for Children and Youth
Exposed to Domestic Violence
Approximately 15.5 million children are exposed to domestic violence every year. Nationwide,
nearly half of all residents of domestic violence shelters supported through the Family Violence
Prevention and Services Program (FVPSA Program) are children. These children, youth, and
their parents need quality services to address the trauma they have experienced and to break
the cycle of violence. The FVPSA Program is committed to expanding comprehensive services
for children and youth exposed to domestic violence ensuring that every child receives a
trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate response to the violence they have
experienced.
In Fiscal Year 2010, the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) awarded FVPSA grants to four
statewide capacity building projects and one national technical assistance provider. These five
grantees serve as leaders for expanding a broader network for support, developing evidencebased interventions for children, youth and parents exposed to domestic violence, and building
national implementation strategies that will lead to local improvements in domestic violence
programs and other community based interventions.
State Projects Overview
Four State Domestic Violence Coalitions will lead statewide efforts to improve practice:
 The New Jersey Coalition For Battered Women will expand an established model
program for children who have been exposed to domestic violence to reach more
communities. The Peace: A Learned Solution (PALS) program provides children with
creative arts therapy to help them heal from exposure to domestic violence. In
addition, the grantee will adapt PALS for adolescents who have been exposed to
domestic violence.

The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence launched the Growing Together
Project, which will increase the capacity of Wisconsin domestic violence programs,
particularly those serving under-represented or culturally specific populations, to
support non-abusing parents and mitigate the impact of exposure to domestic violence
on their children. The intensive project will be in three culturally specific communities of
which two are Native American and one serving Hispanic women.

The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault will improve services and
responses to Alaska's Families through the Safe Alaska Family Team (SAFT) project by
child protection, domestic violence and Tribal family service delivery systems though
cross education, development of an integrated training curriculum and policy, and
creation of a community-based multi-disciplinary team in four Alaskan communities:
Dillingham, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Kodiak. The first year of the SAFT project focused on
assessment of community needs, planning and development. Subsequent years will
focus on the implementation of new, innovative and/or collaborative practices and
evaluating the efficacy and impact of those changes and identifying future opportunities
and challenges.

The Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence launched the Resilient
Families Idaho project. The overarching goal of the Resilient Families Idaho project is to
build and sustain staff and agency capacity in delivering trauma-informed,
developmentally sensitive, parent-child services for non-abusive parents, children, and
youth affected by domestic violence and other trauma. Children Exposed to Domestic
Violence: A Curriculum for DV Advocates was revised and is in use by the selected
project sites in Blackfoot, Nampa and Pocatello. Counselors were trained in Child Parent
Psychotherapy (CPP) and received supplemental training in Trauma Focused Cognitive
Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) which are both evidence-based programs.
National Technical Assistance & Resource Development Overview
Futures Without Violence will serve as a national support network for the domestic violence
field and the four Enhancing Services for Children and Youth grantees. They will improve
technical assistance and resource development for domestic violence programs and allied
organizations serving children and youth by convening expert advisors on services for children
and youth, identifying evidence-based and promising practices, identifying and developing
training and technical assistance resources, and building standards of quality practice.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT SHAWNDELL DAWSON, PROGRAM SPECIALIST AT 202-205-1476 OR
SHAWNDELL.DAWSON@ACF.HHS.GOV.