Anti-Violence Programming

We are committed to decreasing the impact of domestic and community violence on our children and we want to decrease the rampant sexual abuse among the population we serve. The following programs were designed and implemented to decrease trauma within our community:

Violence Prevention Programs:

• Our Intensive Family Team (IFT) responds to families in crisis. The IFT assigns each family unit to one afternoon per week for 12 weeks. The family attends family therapy (in English or in Spanish) with the clinician and the pediatrician over a catered meal. After the family therapy, each member of the family is assigned to other Whittier appointments, including individual therapy, psychiatry, physical evaluations, dental, or eye care appointments.
• We also run Inoculation Against Violence groups, in which a therapist and arts therapist run a group for 5 to 7 year olds while an additional therapist and the domestic violence coordinator lead simultaneous parent groups. In each group session, the topic for children and parents is the same, presented differently. The children are taught ways of staying safe from community and domestic violence, how to develop resilience, and who to tell when something is wrong. The adult sessions focus on keeping their children safe and helping the children, and themselves, in the aftermath of domestic or community violence.