COMMUNITY VIOLENCE SOLUTIONS
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Mission Statement
In pursuit of its mission, "to work in partnership with the community to end sexual assault and family violence though prevention, crisis services, and treatment," Community Violence Solutions provides a 24-hour rape crisis hotline and support services for survivors, interventions for victimized children at the Children's Interview Center, coordinated services for victims of human trafficking, home visiting support for at-risk families with young children, and school-based violence prevention programming and self-defense training. CVS was one of the first rape crisis centers in California and has been providing services in Contra Costa and Marin counties for more than 40 years.
About This Cause
Community Violence Solutions (CVS) was founded by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program in 1974 and incorporated as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in 1977. Formerly called Rape Crisis Center, the organization changed its name in 2001 to Community Violence Solutions in order to better reflect its growing continuum of services in Contra Costa and Marin Counties. CVS’s origins lie in a grass-roots and volunteer-led effort to tackle the complex issue of sexual violence. We remain committed to engaging the larger community in our mission through collaborative work and a strong volunteer component. An active core of more than 25 volunteers—the longest-serving is now in her 18th year with CVS—provides in excess of 400 hours of service monthly in support of CVS programs. Our mission is to work in partnership with the community to end sexual assault and family violence through prevention, crisis services, and treatment. CVS celebrates 40 years of service provision in 2014. In recent years, the traditional rape crisis services that are the core of our work have provided a strong foundation on which to build and expand; added services focus largely on children, youth, and families, in order to prevent interpersonal and sexual violence against and among young people, address the impacts of violence on children, and create safer conditions for young people in the community. A major goal of CVS is to address the intergenerational cycle of violence. Current programs include: • Rape Crisis Center (RCC), providing a 24-hour crisis hotline and support services for sexual assault survivors of all ages and backgrounds. Support services include hospital accompaniment for SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) exams, court accompaniment, counseling services, and case management. • The RCC’s Anti-Human Trafficking program, focusing on commercially sexually exploited youth and operating drop-in centers in San Pablo and Antioch. This program works in collaboration with law enforcement, probation and other community-based organizations for referrals and service coordination, including safe and stable housing, education, employment, and psycho-educational support and life skills groups. At our drop-in centers, youth can meet with case managers, have access to clothing, toiletries, and food (including a home-cooked, family-style sit-down dinner), engage in therapeutic or creative projects or life skills training, or simply have a safe place to rest or sleep. Some participants join our Speakers Bureau, receiving public speaking training and helping staff train partner agencies and the community on human trafficking, including sharing some of their own experiences. • Prevention and Education Program, offering in-school violence prevention programming in multiple grade levels to address the roots of sexual/relationship violence in bullying, in bystander behavior, and in societal and media influences. Working in the classroom and in small group settings, this program intends to help youth build skills and recognize their strengths, so that they are better equipped to avoid violent behavior, to find help when needed, and to act as peer leaders when violence occurs. • Child Welfare Redesign/Differential Response, providing home visiting and case management for families who are at risk of involvement with Children and Family Services (CFS), to improve family functioning and prevent referral to CFS. • Children’s Interview Center (CIC), which is the nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center for Contra Costa County. and coordinates a Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), which includes police, prosecutors, and CFS, to respond to allegations of child abuse (primarily sexual abuse) and to connect families to resources. CIC staff conduct age appropriate forensic interviews as part of the MDT.