Trauma Informed Response to Young Victims of Crime

OVC’s mission is to enhance the Nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and provide leadership in changing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by administering discretionary award programs supported by the federal Crime Victims Fund to develop innovative training and technical assistance, and to provide direct services to improve the overall quality of victim assistance. The purpose of the FY 2018 Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims is to address an urgent gap in crime victim services related to the opioid epidemic and to expand upon existing or establish new programs to provide services to children and youth who are victimized as a result of the opioid crisis. The overarching goal of this program is to support children and youth who are crime victims as a result of the opioid crisis by providing direct services and support to these young victims at a community or jurisdictional level.

With this award, the Worcester’s Division of Public Health (WDPH) will lead the Trauma-Informed Response to Young Victims of Crime (TIRYVOC) program to provide direct services to children under the age of 10 who are crime victims and ensure that stakeholders from various sectors receive the training and support they need to respond effectively. This multidisciplinary partnership will focus on victim services, first responders, child welfare providers, public schools, and health and social service providers. As the project lead, WDPH will develop and implement an effective coordinated response to improve the services for children, youth, and families impacted by the opioid crisis. WDPH will partner with two experienced, nonprofit organizations to provide direct services to child victims, and engage the services of the Child Trauma Training Center for targeted trainings for first responders, and childcare, welfare, public school, public health, and clinical professionals.

CA/NCF