The Hill Transformation Project

The Comprehensive School-Based Approach to Youth Violence and Victimization, Category 1 provides funding to support a comprehensive effort to address youth violence and victimization through implementing evidence–based prevention, intervention and accountability efforts in a school based setting. The goals of the program are to (1) reduce the incidence of school violence through accountability efforts for offenders; (2) respond to victimization, exposure to violence, and trauma as a result of violence that occurs in the school, community, or family, (3) improve school safety and climate; and (4) prevent violence, delinquency, and victimization in the targeted community. Project sites will provide direct services to youth.

The Lancaster County project has garnered a coalition of key stakeholders including 40 public, private, civic and faith-based entities. Local, state, and national partners convened to facilitate primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary intervention with critical involvement of parents, teachers, and administrators in planning, professional development, and monitoring of relevant data. Two goals have been established as follows: 1) Increase Coalition and Community Infrastructure and Capacity to successfully implement comprehensive School-Based Prevention and Intervention initiatives to promote healing and increase safety, well-being and healthy development of children, youth and families, and 2) Reduce the Incidence and Prevalence of Youth Violence and Victimization, and mitigate the consequences of trauma experienced by children, youth and families exposed to violence. The strategy will implement a number of evidence-based models, including Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools, as there is the need for supportive interventions as well as accountability. The programmatic boundary for the project is a three-school feeder pattern located in The Hill, one of the poorest, highest crime areas in the state. CA/NCF