NCCEV Press Releases

For immediate release: December 9, 2002

Mental Health and Police Partners From Across the Country Come to New Haven

NEW HAVEN, CT -- The New Haven Department of Police Service and the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence (NCCEV) at the Yale Child Study Center will host a conference for representatives of the Child Development-Community Policing (CD-CP) program sites from around the country. This meeting initiates a National CD-CP Fellowship that has been created in close collaboration with Rosa DeLauro (D-3rd District), in order to advance the collaborative model developed in New Haven. CD-CP sites will send police and mental health representatives to share and discuss intervention and research protocols that are utilized in their important work with children and families.

The CD-CP initiative, a partnership between the New Haven Department of Police Service and the Yale Child Study Center, began in 1991 and has since been replicated in over a dozen communities across the country in urban, suburban and rural settings. The program is a unique collaboration between law enforcement and mental health professionals that has served children and families exposed to violence and trauma for over a decade. The program seeks to reduce the impact of violence and trauma on children through direct police and clinical intervention including assessment, treatment, and referral to collaborative services for children and families in need. The cornerstone of this partnership is a 24 hour-a-day, 7 day-a-week acute response service, where clinicians and police partners respond to children and families in situations of violence and crisis.

Commenting on the CD-CP initiative, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said, "Thousands of children nationwide are witness to violence on their streets, in their schools, and sadly, in their own homes. The Child Development-Community Policing program steps in as soon as police are on the scene, working with mental health professionals to make certain that the child gets out of the dangerous situation and into appropriate counseling and mental health care. Models such as this one have great potential to heal the scars of these children, and work to end the cycle of violence."

Dr. Steven Marans, Director of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence and the CD-CP Program explains, "This is an exciting time for our program. Over the past decade we have seen the CD-CP program grow and expand to a variety of communities and locations across the country." Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. highlights the importance of the partnership between police and clinicians, stating "New Haven is proud to be home to the CD-CP, one of the cornerstones of our community policing initiative. We welcome the opportunity to host representatives from other CD-CP sites as we continue to learn from each other."Melvin Wearing, Chief of Police in New Haven commented, "The new CD-CP Fellowship will provide us with the opportunity to further learn from each other about the value of collaboration between police and mental health partners and to identify the positive outcomes of our work together." Assistant Chief Douglas MacDonald added, "The information we gain in our national collaborative will better inform our field about the impact of violence and trauma on children and help us come to a better understanding of intervention strategies that are most effective."

CD-CP sites attending the collaborative meeting on December 12th and 13th include representatives from Baltimore, MD, Charlotte, NC, Chelsea, MA, Framingham, MA, Nashville, TN, Clearwater, FL and local communities of Stamford, Madison, Guilford, Bridgeport and New Haven, CT.

For more information, please contact:

National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
1-877- 49-NCCEV
Email: nccev@info.med.yale.edu
Or visit the program’s websites at www.nccev.org and www.cd-cp.org.