Racial Equity at the Center (REACH): Anti-Oppressive Engagement and Connection to Evidence-Based Trauma Treatments for Child Survivors of Trauma in NYC's Child Serving Systems - Project Title: Racial Equity at the Center (REACH): Anti-Oppressive Engagement and Connection to Evidence-Based Trauma Treatments for Child Survivors of Physical and Sexual Abuse Identified through NYC's Child-Serving Systems
Project Summary: Safe Horizon's Racial Equity at the Center (REACH) program will provide trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, evidence-based treatments to traumatized children ages 0-17 identified through NYC's child-serving law enforcement and child welfare systems. Through REACH, Safe Horizon clinicians will screen and treat children and caregivers through all five NYC Child Advocacy Centers, which investigate allegations of physical and sexual abuse, through prevention programs embedded within child welfare systems, and through twelve New York Police precincts that respond to trauma among children exposed to domestic violence.
REACH will intervene in the peritraumatic phase of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with evidence-based mental health treatments, including the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for younger children, and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Racial Trauma (TF-CBT-RT). A groundbreaking innovation will be integrating and adapting evidence-based treatments though new approaches for racial socialization and racial trauma. In partnership with certified CFTSI, CPP, and TFCBT partners, REACH will build the capacity of clinicians, child welfare, and law enforcement partners to more effectively engage families in screening and treatment.
REACH will address racial disparities among families of color and aim to significantly increase engagement through development and implementation of affirming, anti-oppressive, and trauma-informed outreach and engagement. Using Safe Horizon’s evidence-informed Brief Trauma Intervention (BTI), which was developed by staff of color and builds significantly on the McKay Engagement Tool, Safe Horizon will significantly reduce engagement disparities for families of color, who are the most likely to encounter barriers in access to critically needed treatment, including systemic racism. For these families, declining services is often motivated by goals of family preservation and fear of involvement with structurally racist social institutions. Therefore, Safe Horizon will collaborate with NCTSN model developers and a Learning Collaborative of Safe Horizon staff to apply racial socialization frameworks to our screening, engagement, and evidence-based treatments. REACH will further develop practices with value for other major cities that seek to address racial disparities, enhance engagement, and improve responsiveness of child welfare and law enforcement.
REACH’s goals are: to increase the number of families in child-serving systems who engage in mental health services through development and implementation of anti-oppressive practice; and to reduce child traumatic stress and promote health outcomes among traumatized children and families through evidence-based mental health treatments. Our objectives are: to implement new organic screening as an anti-oppressive strategy with 200 caregivers in Year 1 to 600 in Year 5; and to increase the number of children completing evidence-based trauma treatments from 20 in Year 1 to 60 in Year 5.
REACH will train roughly 250 staff in anti-oppressive, evidence-based practices and reach more than 2,000 children and their families over five years.
Estimated number of people to be served as a result of the award of this grant: 2,180
