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Trauma center gets $1 million to reduce impact of violence

Oct. 22, 2010

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University's Southwest Michigan Children's Trauma Assessment Center, in partnership with New Genesis, the Kalamazoo Hispanic Council and several other community agencies, has been awarded a $1 million, four-year grant through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Safe Start Promising Approaches Initiative.

The grant will fund Project Partnering to Effectively Reduce the Impact of Violence to Children in Kalamazoo--Project PERK for short. Partners in the project will first identify children exposed to violence in Kalamazoo County. They will then use a tiered-intervention approach to reduce the impact of that violence on the children's neurodevelopmental, relational and emotional progress.

"Our community partners and the center's team are ecstatic about this fantastic opportunity to strengthen key neighborhood center services to children, empower caregivers whose children have experienced exposure to violence, and develop new child-centered community policies," says Dr. James Henry, center director.

Partners or other caregivers and community agencies will be involved and trained in trauma-informed practices to provide services to children and their families. In addition, key leaders from the primary agencies that serve Kalamazoo children will participate in community board meetings to plan, develop, and implement strategies and new policies to better serve children exposed to violence.

The Children's Trauma Assessment Center is a program of the WMU College of Health and Human Services and its affiliated Unified Clinics. The center's goal is to assess the impact to children following exposure to traumatic events and suspected fetal alcohol exposure. Assessment services are provided by a team of interdisciplinary professionals from the college and the Center for Behavioral Pediatrics.

For more information, visit the Children's Trauma Assessment Center online, call (269) 387-7073 or send e-mail to chhs-ctac@wmich.edu.

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Media contact: Mark Schwerin, (269) 387-8400, mark.schwerin@wmich.edu

WMU News
Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
(269) 387-8400
www.wmich.edu/news