9/4/2009

Grant Funds Primary Prevention Of Youth Dating And Sexual Violence

Louisville, KY – Children’s Peace Center at Our Lady of Peace and The Center for Women and Families have received a grant from Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) to initiate a community-based coalition to prevent youth dating and sexual violence.

The award of $68,150 is from CHI’s Mission and Ministry Fund Grant program which was established to support the planning, development and implementation of new initiatives that promote healthier communities across the globe.  Since its inception in 1996, CHI has awarded 241 Mission and Ministry Fund grants totaling $29 million.

“Over time, we have seen that these grants help to bring about significant improvements in the health of communities, both in the U.S. and abroad,” said Kevin Lofton, president/CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives.  This year, CHI has launched a system-wide initiative to prevent violence in every community the health care system serves.

Our Lady of Peace is part of Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare, a joint venture of CHI and Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services.  It is the state’s largest hospital provider of mental health care to children and adolescents, serving more than 1,800 kids a year.  In 2009, the hospital opened a nine-bed unit specifically for adolescent girls with acute psychiatric problems.  The Center for Women and Families assists victims of interpersonal violence and sexual violence and engages communities in prevention throughout an 11 Kentuckiana county service area.

The grant from CHI will fund the creation of a “Coalition to Prevent Teen Dating Violence” to focus on dating and sexual violence prevention and implementation of prevention education efforts including the Green Dot Strategy focusing on bystander intervention and peer influence. 

 “We know that violence prevention, in contrast to intervention, requires a broad, community-based, coordinated and ongoing initiative,” said Denise Vasquez Troutman, president/ CEO of The Center for Women and Families.  “The grant will allow us to assemble a coalition made up of educators, social workers, policy makers, legal professionals, law enforcement and youth advocates to influence broad social and cultural norms related to teen dating violence.”

In addition, the grant will fund implementation of the Green Dot Strategy at up to six area schools.  First researched with students at the University of Kentucky, the goal of Green Dot is prevention of dating and sexual violence through bystander awareness and engagement and the use of popular opinion leaders to spread the message of non-violence to peers. 

“There is a great need for this work in our community and we’re very pleased to play a role in this partnership,” said Tim Brady, president /CEO of Our Lady of Peace.  He noted that the 2005 Youth Needs Assessment Report, prepared by the Louisville Metro Alliance for Youth, estimated that 30 percent of all students enrolled in the Jefferson County Public Schools had been a victim of physical abuse caused by someone in the family or at home and 32 percent at the hand of someone outside the home or not a family member. 

“We certainly see this borne out in the young patients we treat through the Children’s Peace Center programs at Our Lady of Peace,” said Brady.

About Catholic Health Initiatives
Catholic Health Initiatives is a national nonprofit health organization with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The faith-based system operates in 20 states and includes 78 hospitals; 40 long-term care, assisted- and residential-living facilities; and two community health-services organizations. Together, those facilities provided $536 million during the 2008 fiscal year in charity care and community benefit, including services for the poor, free clinics, education and research. With annual revenues of $8.2 billion, Catholic Health Initiatives ranks as the nation’s second-largest Catholic health care system.

About Children’s Peace Center at Our Lady of Peace
Our Lady of Peace is a private, not-for-profit psychiatric hospital in Louisville, KY, a service of Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare. The Hospital was originally founded in 1951 by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and is licensed for 416 beds, currently operating 260 beds.  OLOP is the largest private psychiatric hospital in the nation in terms of licensed bed capacity, the second largest in current operating capacity and the largest provider of child/adolescent inpatient psychiatric care in the country.  Our Lady of Peace operates a full continuum of services for patients from young children to seniors, with a special emphasis on psychiatric care for children and adolescents, including several special needs programs.  We serve patients from all over Kentucky & the surrounding region, including eleven other states. 

About The Center for Women and Families
Originally part of the YWCA, The Center for Women and Families began offering services in 1912. Today The Center is a private nonprofit organization that helps victims of intimate partner abuse or sexual violence to become survivors through supportive services, community education and cooperative partnerships in eleven Kentuckiana counties. Innovative programming and dedicated staff bolster The Center’s six facilities, three of which provide emergency shelter and transitional housing. The Joan E. Thomas, M.D. Campus in downtown Louisville features the region’s only Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Clinic, offering immediate, confidential services to victims of sexual assault.