(Posted 2023 April)
The idea for what is now known as Step Up 4 Kids, a coordinated community response to children who experience domestic violence in Fairfax County, started brewing in 2012, when a previous countywide domestic violence coordinator and a former Children, Youth, and Families staffer recognized there was a need for higher level coordination of services for children who have experienced domestic violence. Now that coalition, made up of a group of county employees and folks from the nonprofit community who serve children and families, works to raise awareness about how to support and help children who have experienced violence.
Volunteer Voices recently sat down with Brittany Vera, Domestic and Sexual Violence Services’ child witness to domestic violence coordinator, to talk about this initiative. This is an excerpt from that discussion:
Volunteer Voices: How did Step Up 4 Kids come into being?
Brittany Vera: In 2012 Sandy Bromley, a former countywide domestic violence coordinator, and Dani Colon, a CYF worker, recognized a need for higher level coordination of services for children who have experienced domestic violence. We were becoming more of aware of the impact on children and the safety concerns. They started training staff and advocated to the then-Domestic Violence Prevention, Policy, and Coordinating Council (now the Council to End Domestic Violence) leadership, former Sup. John Cook, for the need for a child witness to violence coordinator. Around the same time, the Obama White House formed the attorney general’s Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence initiative. In 2012, that initiative published a report that identified specific recommendations communities could take to prevent and end children being exposed to domestic violence.
A work plan was developed that aligned with these recommendations and mapped the activities being done at that time by the county, different agencies, and organizations to address the needs of children exposed to domestic violence. What they found was the work was already happening; it was just disjointed.
Sandy and Dani advocated for funding for my position to help the right hand talk to the left hand, play from the same playbook so to speak, to help the work be more streamlined and coordinated. Sup. Cook was a big advocate and champion for getting this going. Child witness work is a Council initiative, so we have more leverage to show the community how important this is in our coordinated community response. They got funding from the general fund and the Board of Supervisors, where we had political support.
I came on board in 2018. There were hiccups--we had to figure out what the position was going to look like, come up with a name—but we had a lot of excitement from all the community partners. We wanted something that wasn’t going to be the DV Network 2.0, so we had to be very thoughtful about who was going to be around the table. We made sure there was a good balance of county and nonprofit partners and that schools were incorporated. It meant a lot of nurturing partnerships.
We kicked off in November 2018. That day, it snowed out of nowhere! So, we did the first hybrid meeting—before covid made hybrid meetings a regular thing. Only half the attendees were in the room. DSVS Division Director Toni (Zollicoffer) and I made soup. We went through a very deliberate process of mapping out what was being done in the county and the goals we wanted to accomplish—without any funding.
It had a lot of support, which was good, but we had to find our way. We were able to forge some unique partnerships. It was a matter of finding your champions in all the places and spaces and not going with the usual suspects.
Who’s in the coalition?
Neighborhood and Community Services, including a member of the Athletic Council; Fairfax CASA; SafeSpot; Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, judges and court services staff; Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board; Fairfax County Public Schools; Department of Family Services; Ayuda; Fairfax Health Department; Healthy Minds Fairfax; INOVA Cares clinics for women and children; Second Story; Shelter House; Fairfax County Police Department; Northern Virginia Family Services; and private mental health providers.
What are SU4K resources?
We’ve developed materials with the idea that we needed to give professionals and people in the community support and tools. We have posters that illustrate the impact of violence on children over their lifetime. The posters go from birth to the teen years and are in languages other than English. We developed a website that provides information on how adults in different roles—think schools, coaches, friends, caring adults--can help.
We have our Caring for Kids videos that talk about domestic violence and also generalized trauma and mental health, because kids don’t experience these things in isolation.
We’ve developed resource cards that remind professionals if a child or parent is telling them about violence in the home, this is what it looks like, this is what you should say/shouldn’t say, and direct them to call hotlines. We developed that because we realize not everyone was calling our hotline. We wanted to highlight that providers can also call our hotline—if a parent isn’t able or doesn’t feel it’s the next step.
And there’s a police resource card to remind officers about the important of checking in with kids when they respond to a scene. This serves a couple of purposes: It leaves a positive image in a child’s mind about the police to minimize trauma and harm, and it greases the wheel as police are required to report to Child Protective Services.
What are the challenges?
Keeping everyone engaged in a meaningful way when it feels like there’s so much work to be done post-covid. Everyone has a much shorter/narrower bandwidth. Everyone’s gotten so much busier since covid.
There’s also a lack of institutional memory because of staff turnover, and people don’t remember why we did what we did. it’s difficult to say this is how we need to help families and children when they don’t understand the why behind why it’s being done.
Then there’s always the challenge of not the people but the positions they hold. We all have different goals, guardrails, policies we have to adhere to. How do you find inroads? How do you advocate? How do you bring people together? There’s a lot of political maneuvering, which is not necessarily in the job description.
What is the main takeaway about SU4K you want to leave with readers?
A lot of people think it takes someone with a lot of skills to help a child, and it really doesn’t. It takes listening. It takes just one caring adult to make a difference in a child’s life. The biggest predictor of whether or not a child who has experienced domestic violence will be OK is how much support they receive. Call our hotline, 703-360-7273. Be mindful of when you are on the hotline or on an accompaniment of all the ways a child is present in the home. Need training? I do them.
This article posting is part of the Domestic and Sexual Violence Services' Volunteer Voices monthly newsletter for current and potential volunteers. If you're not already a volunteer, learn how to get involved. Find out about upcoming trainings, volunteer trainings, happenings around the DSVS office and information about articles, books, media recommendations and more.
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