NCJ Number
232121
Date Published
January 2008
Length
48 pages
Annotation
This document funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention describes the Safe Start initiative, a program to address the needs of children exposed to violence.
Abstract
The Safe Start initiative was launched in 2000 through a partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. The intent of the initiative is to prevent and reduce the negative consequences of children's exposure to violence, and at the same time to enhance children's and adolescents' well-being through the implementation of preventive interventions. This report presents an overview of the five phases of the Safe Start initiative: Phase I - Safe Start Demonstration to engage communities in creating a continuum of care; Phase II - Safe Start Promising Approaches uses the findings, innovations, and experiences of the demonstration sites to engage in a quasi-experimental evaluation to inform Phase III; Phase III - will replicate the findings of Phase II to further evaluate and confirm results; and Phases IV and V - will spread the interventions and practices from Phase III that were found to be most effective. In 2005, OJJDP began funding for the 15 Phase II communities: Bronx, NY; Chelsea, MA; Dallas, TX; Dayton, OH; Erie, PA; Kalamazoo, MI; Miami, FL; New York, NY; Oakland, CA; Pompano, FL; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; San Diego, CA; San Mateo, CA; and Toledo, OH. This report outlines the intervention programs that integrate evidence-based and other promising practices that these communities have implemented in an effort to reduce children's exposure to violence.