Community Violence Intervention Center Inc

Causes: Domestic Violence, Family Violence Shelters, Homeless & Housing, Hot Lines & Crisis Intervention, Human Services, Mental Health, Victims Services

Mission: Preventing violence. Promoting safety. Building hope. Cvic serves as a catalyst offering energy, momentum and vision toward ending local violence. Since its inception in 1980, cvic has built a dynamic continuum of services that frees individuals from violence through providing safety, stability and healing. Cvic also fosters a culture of innovation and community engagement, knowing that lasting change for individuals will only come by changing our society. Cvic provides education and training that promote positive relationships and best practices and spearheads unprecedented collaborative projects that are on their way to virtually ending local violence in two generations.

Programs: Light of hope program: light of hope provides the only place of refuge in our community for individuals who are being abused in their own homes or harmed by sexual violence, stalking or bullying, serving 1,746 adults and children in 2017, with 99% of clients surveyed reporting that our services benefited their lives. Services include: 1. Safety: shelter, 24-hour crisis intervention, assistance with protection orders, legal representation, advocacy, and related support, with 97% of clients surveyed stating they felt safer after receiving services. The need for shelter services continued its climb, up 80% since 2010, from 103 to 185 adults and children sheltered. One client commented: "everyone at the shelter has made it seem i am actually worth something and will get somewhere. "2. Healing: evidence-based individual and group therapy to help adults, teens and children to cope with the trauma of violence and heal, with 98% of adults surveyed stating they increased knowledge and 91% showing improvement in emotional condition, and 97% of youth surveyed or rated exhibiting improved emotional well-being. The number of children and youth receiving therapy and support rose 226% since we began increasing services, from 61 in 2011 to 199 in 2017. One mother of youth receiving therapy commented: "i want everyone to know that making the decision to seek counseling for my children was the best i ever made, it has changed our life completely. I have honor roll students because they . . . Were able to process trauma. "3. Empowerment: our career and educational counseling, housing assistance, and transitional housing, with 90% of clients assisted with employment needs taking steps toward securing jobs or higher education, and 94% of clients assisted with housing needs taking steps toward securing permanent housing. Our transitional housing program has enabled 100% of 14 families to take steps toward meeting their self-sufficiency goals. One client commented: "this program and the staff have helped me so much through everything i have experienced. A huge weight has been lifted off of me and i can finally breathe again. My kids and i feel happy again. "

community innovations program: community innovations works on a community level to both prevent domestic and sexual violence and to enhance the way in which we collaboratively respond to violence. Services include: 1. Prevention education and training: in 2017, we provided 387 education and training presentations to 10,095 people, including 2,120 professionals, 2,499 children and youth, and 5,476 adults, with 96% of those surveyed stating they were satisfied with the presentation and presenter. Individuals said the following were especially helpful: "learning about the trauma that newborns or infants experience does impact later social and emotional development. " "looking over individuals for easily missed signs of strangulation. " "teaching me about relationship goals to help me in life. " youth violence prevention: we offer a variety of programming that helps to prevent abuse or sexual assault before it ever happens, including a mentoring program for high school athletes and positive friendship and healthy relationships curricula, with 83% of youth surveyed indicating increased knowledge. General education: we offer educational presentations to community groups on local violence and healthy relationships, with 97% of those surveyed stating our presentations increased their awareness of issues and services. Professional training: we provide in-depth training to equip professionals in effectively responding to violence, with 96% of those surveyed indicating the training provided them with knowledge and skills that will assist them in their line of work. 2. Collaborative projects coordinated community response (ccr) project: we spearhead this effort involving 15 key agencies that track cases of domestic and sexual violence through the criminal justice system, analyze computerized data to determine gaps in our system's response, and participate in training and dialogue to strategically address the gaps. Our progress includes: increased conviction rate in domestic violence cases, from 65% in 2005 to 87% in 2017; enhanced protection of children when law enforcement responds to 911 calls, with reports of child abuse/neglect increasing from 30% of reports that noted child witnesses in 2002 to 71% in 2017; and an increase in defendants convicted and ordered into cvic's offender program, from 23% of offenders sentenced in 2006 to 62% in 2017. The ccr also implements two additional projects: - lethality assessment program to increase coordination between law enforcement and cvic advocates to enhance safety for domestic violence victims in danger. In 2017, officers connected 90% of those at high risk with a cvic advocate at the scene; 57 victims had never before accessed services. - sexual assault response team, involving nurses, advocates and law enforcement providing a trauma-informed response to victims. In 2017, first responders provided a coordinated response to 50 victims of sexual assault. Safer tomorrows road map project: after extensive research and planning, cvic and key partners have developed a community-wide strategy to virtually end violence in grand forks county in two generations, rendering it as outdated as women being denied the right to vote or as unacceptable as children riding in a car without seat belts. The safer tomorrows road map takes a previous collaborative project to a new level, working closely with 32 schools across the county to promote a cultural change through education across a child's academic career while simultaneously providing safety and healing to prevent the effects of trauma from being passed from one generation to the next. As a result, community members will be equipped with what they need to develop positive relationships and to prevent the use of violence at every stage of life. During 2017, cvic held 22 listening sessions with 154 people providing feedback to illuminate our next steps to engage our community in this plan. Outcomes of this project include: - 38% decrease in middle/high school students reporting they were bullied during the past 12 months between 2012 to 2017; - 30% decrease in students in grades 9-12 reporting they were forced into a sexual act in the past 12 months between 2011 and 2015; and - 35% decrease in violence-related suspensions and expulsions in grand forks county schools between 2012 and 2017.

kids first program: kids first provides supervised child visitations and exchanges to ensure the safety of at-risk children and parents experiencing abuse, neglect, domestic violence and other issues, and to promote positive parent-child relationships. We offer a safe environment that features a high level of security, and we collaborate closely with the courts, law enforcement and social services to ensure the safety of children and families. In 2017, we served 211 children and 310 adults (153 families), providing 1,346 supervised visitations and 543 supervised exchanges of children, with 96% of those surveyed indicating our services benefited their family (many are mandated to receive services), and 99% responding favorably that they experienced a safe environment at kids first. Clients have commented: "love this program and the security it provides! " "without this place my exchanges would be a nightmare, and for that i'm grateful. " "we always have such a great time at kids first. I really enjoy the staff, and they are very kind to my children. "services include:1. Supervised parenting time: we provide separate rooms furnished with comfortable furniture, books and toys that enable parents to spend quality time with their children, supervised by professional staff. In 2017, in 89% of the visits staff provided mentoring for adults on parenting issues. 2. Supervised exchanges: we provide parents or caretakers that no longer live together a safe place to exchange their children for visitation, preventing harassment or abuse and ensuring that children are not exposed to parental conflicts during the exchange.