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Rochester Safe Start
Rochester, NY
Lead Agency: Monroe
County Health Department
Co-Applicant: Children's
Institute
Safe Start Staff:
- Andrew Doniger, Director, Monroe County Health Department
- Dirk Hightower, Director, Children's Institute
- Deborah Johnson, Project Director of Safe Start, Director of Community
Services, Children's Institute
- Karen Reixach, Project Coordinator of Safe Start Rochester, Children's
Institute
Project Purpose:
To create a holistic approach to prevent and reduce the harmful effects
of exposure to violence on young children by improving access to, delivery
of, and quality of services to children and responding to the needs of
children and their families at any point of entry into relevant (e.g.,
legal, social services, medical) systems.
Organizational Chart (gif)
Project Vision:
Rochester Safe Start will be a national model of collaboration among
the public and private sectors that identify and provide services to pregnant
women and children through age six and their families who are at risk
of, or have been exposed to violence. Our multifaceted approach will include
direct service, changing community norms, and increasing community safety
in neighborhoods, childcare settings, schools and homes. Our approach
will be comprehensive, culturally diverse, child-focused, based in family
strengths and outcome-based.
Project Goals and Objectives:
To create a holistic approach to prevent and reduce the harmful effects
of exposure to violence on young children by improving access to, delivery
of, and quality of services to children and responding to the needs of
children and their families at any point of entry into relevant (e.g.,
legal, social services, medical) systems.
1. Increase system efficiency and humane response to children exposed
to violence.
- Inform formal and informal systems about impact of violence on young
children
- Improve case level data exchange
- Improve aggregate data collection and reporting
- Enhance and integrate home-visiting projects
- Coordinate with and influence related initiatives in order to ensure
that children's needs are taken into account
- Participate strategically in related community organizations to identify
common opportunities for systems change and action steps
2. Directly reduce
the impact of violence on young children and their families (actual services,
not referrals)
- Improve adjustment of children exposed to violence through just-in
time consultation to early childhood providers and parents/caretakers
- Improve adjustment through intensive services to children suspended
or expelled from early childhood settings
- Reduce the impact of domestic and community violence through child-centered
crisis response
- Enhance and expand services for children in families where domestic
violence occurs
- Adapt court-related family education project
- Add objectives based on further community assessment and other opportunities
3. Increase community responsibility for children exposed to violence
by implementing a communication campaign to raise public awareness of
the effects of exposure to violence on infants and young children and
strengthen confidence in ability to respond.
4. Building on existing partnerships, develop the Safe Start Collaborative
to carry out strategic planning and deliver services to pregnant women
and young children and their families who are at risk of or have been
exposed to violence in family or community.
- Build a viable structure to achieve the outcomes for Safe Start
- Ensure the outcomes are met by engaging and involving the broader
community in Safe Start
- Ensure cultural competence and respect for diversity in all aspects
of Safe Start
- Manage Safe Start
5. Strengthen community capacity through evaluation and technical assistance.
- Continue to assess community needs and resources
- Improve systems, services, and collaboration based on learning what
works and what does not through the local and national evaluations
- Improve the capacity of the community to respond by building expertise
and skills
Planning Partners (Partial Listing):
- Action for a Better Community Alternatives for Battered Women
- Center for Governmental Research
- Children's Institute
- City of Rochester
- Early Childhood Development Initiative
- Family Resource Centers of Rochester
- Ibero-American Action League
- Jewish Family Services
- Legal Aid Society
- Mental Health Association
- Monroe County Executive's Office
- Monroe County Department of Social Services
- Monroe County Family Court
- Monroe County Health Department
- Monroe County Office of Mental Health
- Monroe County Probation
- Mt. Hope Family Center
- Perinatal Network
- Rochester City School District
- Rochester-Monroe County Youth Bureau
- Rochester Early Enhancement Project (REEP)
- Rochester Police Department
- Rochester Preschool-Parents Program
- Society for the Protection and Care of Children
- State University of New York at Buffalo, Law School, Family Violence
Clinic
- Strong Hospital Department of Psychiatry
- Strong Hospital, REACH Clinic
- Strong Hospital Department of Social Work
- United Neighborhood Centers of Greater Rochester
- United Way of Greater Rochester
- Urban League of Greater Rochester
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