Improving Services for Children, Youth, and Families

Children must rely on others for protection, shelter, nurturing, and guidance, which makes them among the most vulnerable of victim groups. Far too often, children face danger in their own homes. Research shows that a significant proportion of children experience physical assault in their lifetimes, and large percentages continue to be maltreated and suffer exposure to physical and emotional violence in their homes, schools, and communities.^[6] These experiences can cause lasting effects throughout the lifespan.^[7] OVC’s Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services Final Report and the Report of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence found that although children and youth continue to experience crime and victimization at alarming rates, they remain underserved and that the systems charged with caring for them provide fragmented and ineffective responses. To bring healthcare, child welfare, justice, and other systems together to coordinate and align efforts to ensure a timely and seamless response to young victims, their families, and caregivers, OVC competitively awarded the FY 2014 Vision 21: Linking Systems of Care for Children and Youth State Demonstration Project to Montana and Virginia. The two demonstration sites are working strategically and collaboratively to ensure that prevention and intervention services are determined by the needs of the family and that community resources are provided with holistic and coordinated intent. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is providing ongoing training and technical assistance to the two demonstration sites, and ICF International is conducting an evaluation of the project, with funding from the National Institute of Justice, to determine its impact, effectiveness, and lessons learned.