December 2004

With the help of a $1 million grant, Oakland’s Safe Passages and its partners are expanding efforts to provide young children exposed to violence with the support needed to alleviate trauma, enhance school readiness and, ultimately, break the cycle of violence.

The grant was awarded through the federal Early Learning Opportunities (ELOA) Act, which funds early literacy strategies and other activities that produce and sustain gains in early learning for children ages 0-5.  In collaboration with provider partners and the Alameda  County Child Care Planning Council, Safe Passages secured the grant from the federal Administration for Children and Families.  The Planning Council is the recipient of the grant, with Safe Passages as the grantee.

“The objective of the grant is to promote literacy.  We made the case that if kids are not emotionally ready to learn due to exposure to violence, it will be more challenging for them to be taught,” says Quinta Seward, Safe Passages’ development director.

The grant will support seven childcare and preschool programs in Oakland and Alameda County, including Oakland school district centers, Head Start centers and faith-based providers. The funded programs are located in areas with high concentrations of poverty and incidence of violence, or where violence-related services are limited.  About 500 children and their families will be served.

Seward cites the mixture of the providers and the populations they serve as a way to maximize the diversity of children and families to be reached through the grant.  For example, Parental Stress Services provides an array of services to prevent and treat child abuse problems; Jewish Family and Children Services provides mental health services primarily to African American, Latino and Asian populations; Through the Looking Glass is an agency that addresses the needs of children with disabilities.

“Increasingly, agencies are working together and the community is benefiting from the diverse experience,” Seward says.  “One of the missing pieces in the system that this grant will help provide is the delivery of services on-site, at the preschool and childcare centers.”

The sites will now have on-site case managers and mental health consultants.  The mental health consultants identify children who have been exposed to violence, and work with the teachers to help the child get through problems associated with that exposure.  If psychotherapy is required, the consultant can make the referral, and the cost of the therapy is paid by the grant.  In addition, the case managers make sure the child and family get connected to whatever services are needed and available in the community.

Other activities funded through the grant are:

• Violence prevention curriculum—training and materials are provided for teachers to implement the “Second Step” curriculum that teaches non-violent social skills.
   
• Enhanced early learning activities—culturally appropriate books that complement the Second Step curriculum are provided.

Parent training is also provided through the grant, which is administered by the East Bay Community Foundation (lead agency for Safe Passages).  In addition, the grant funds Safe Passages’ early childhood strategist position.  This will assure greater coordination and rapid implementation of Safe Passages’ overall early childhood strategy.  Aspects of that comprehensive strategy are:

• Coordinating services for children ages 0-5 exposed to violence -- Ensuring that young children receive the support services they need to combat the influence of family and community violence during their formative years.
   
• Supporting an overburdened system -- When the Police Department realized that they needed to better address the needs of kids witnessing and enduring domestic violence, Safe Passages helped them join forces with the Family Violence Law Center to create a specialized team of advocates, the Family Violence Intervention Unit.
   
• Never too early -- Many of Oakland's children under the age of five spend the majority of their waking hours in childcare centers.  Safe Passages is working with administrators and teachers to implement the Second Step Violence Prevention Curriculum.  Second Step teaches peaceful problem solving, and gives children the tools to articulate their emotions in response to violence in the home and the community.
   
• Easing the impact of violence on children and parents -- Safe Passages brings together a collaborative of experienced mental health providers to support young children exposed to violence. On-going mental health consultations at early childhood education centers address challenging behaviors in the classroom, while intensive infant/child-parent psychotherapy helps build nurturing parent-child relationships.
   
• Maximizing resources – Safe Passages’ Early Childhood Policy Committee promotes an Oakland-based initiative that incorporates key government and community agencies and leverages funding to build the capacity of agencies to serve children exposed to violence.

 (For more information on this website about Safe Passages, click here.  For more articles on this website about early childhood interventions, click here.)