CD-CP Replication Sites : Guilford, CT

Main Contact

Robin Pinsker
Youth and Family Services Director
Child Violence Intervention Project
55 Park Street
Guilford, Connecticut
(203) 453-8047; (203) 453-8070
pinskerr@ci.guilford.ct.us

Participating Agencies

Website

Program Goal

Guilford CD-CP clinicians serve victims and witnesses of violent or traumatic events to preserve the necessary skills, strategies, and opportunities for youth to establish strong and positive relationships with family, school, peers and the community, even through community crisis and/or victimization.

Program Overview

Although Guilford tends not to experience chronic violence the ways larger cities do, it is not a community immune to the despair of trauma and violent events. In the event that a child or his/her family is victim of, or is exposed to, a traumatic event, Guilford Police Officers immediately collaborate with Guilford Youth and Family Services clinicians to ensure that the victim’s sense of well-being and safety are promptly addressed. Officers contact clinicians about troubling cases via an acute response pager, direct phone calls, or by fax. The officer-clinician team coordinates services to be provided for the family on a case-by-case basis.

Continued collaboration occurs at monthly Guilford CD-CP case conferences in which new case referrals are discussed, and case management services and law enforcement issues are reviewed. In these meetings, officers and other agency members are encouraged to provide input on cases regarding legal standings, child protective services, and school status, so cases can be managed and treated effectively. Both Guilford CD-CP clinicians and officers stay in regular contact throughout the month via phone and a variety of other associated community meetings, including the GYFS Advisory Board and the Juvenile Review Board. Guilford CD-CP clinicians participate in police ride-alongs at the beginning of their team training, and are presently considering reinstituting these ride-alongs as standard practice post-training. Guilford CD-CP teams comprised of an officer and a clinician will occasionally do a follow up visit to the home of clients recently exposed to violence to engage families in services. Inter-agency collaboration allows the Guilford CD-CP to meaningfully address the physical and psychological safety of Guilford community members.

Staff

The Guilford CDCP team includes the director, a prevention specialist and three clinicians based at the Guilford Youth and Family Services Agency and at least six police supervisors who have been trained in the CDCP model. The Guilford Police Department has 38 patrol officers and two detectives.

Robin Pinsker, Director, GYFS
Marilyn Truglio-Kirwin
Steven Renchy, Detective, Guilford Police Department