SEEDS HEALS
Affirming YOUth Project SEEDS – HEALS
PROJECT SEEDS – HEALS (Social Emotional Enhance and Development for Success – Helping, Empowering and Lifting Society) is a comprehensive program that enhances public safety in schools and community by delivering services in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team focused on social and emotional learning, community-based behavioral health and wellness, and the acquisition of skills to manage emotions, increase self-esteem, improve social interactions, build affective understanding, develop emotional awareness and improve participants ability to make positive problem-solving decision making.
PROJECT SEEDS – HEALS is based on the understanding that victims of gang-related violence often experience unique circumstances that create a need for culturally responsive, trauma-focused, cognitively guided mental and behavioral health, community-based social and human resources, and a continuum of coordinated services. Community and schools combined with law enforcement, juvenile services, child and family services, mental health and wellness providers, community and faith-based leaders, educators, and parents all play a vital role in supporting the positive development of youth impacted by gang-related violence.
The overall Goal of PROJECT SEEDS – HEALS is to reduce the incidence of violence through mental and behavioral health wellness services to trauma-impacted youth; lower rates of aggression and violent behavior by assisting youth to develop emotional self-awareness and control, positive social skills, problem-solving, conflict resolution; provide mentoring and intensive wraparound services that address environmental factors, family and daily living; and implement a community-based platform to improve positive youth and family outcomes while preventing violence, delinquency, victimization, and revictimization through a continuum of care.
The Objective of the program is to improve youth mental and behavioral health, family engagement, and increase student’s life and coping skills, and to enhance existing community collaborations and partnerships.
This will be accomplished through the following Deliverables to support schools and communities to reduce gang-related violence, enhance public safety, and provide comprehensive evidenced-based services to positively impact children, youth, and families who are victims of gang-related violence.
- Improve systems response to victims of gang-related violence and their families by implementing PROJECT SEEDS – HEALS to provide services in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team focused on social and emotional learning, community-based behavioral health and wellness, family support services and the acquisition of skills to manage emotions, increase self-esteem, improve social interactions, build affective understanding, develop emotional awareness and improve participants ability to make positive problem-solving decision making
- Convene a multidisciplinary community success team using the principles of restorative justice that meets regularly throughout the project period to identify and address service gaps and barriers and create a community success and violence reduction blueprint to support children and youth victims of gang-related violence.
- Expand and enhance the use of community and school assessments through strategic planning that use data to inform decision making for ongoing program improvement, and for measuring outcomes.
- Reduce and sustain reductions in youth victimization and revictimization as a result of gang-related violence or witnessing community violence.