Center for Hope Programs

Responding to Violence

In response to the growing presence of violence in Baltimore, LifeBridge Health is committed to building hope with our communities. Comprehensive programs, experts and city agency partners have joined together to foster positivity, safety and success for children, youth and adults. Center for Hope offers integrated programs and services designed to break the cycle of violence and its lifelong impact for victims of all races, ethnicities and religions, from the cradle to old age.

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Ending Community Violence

PAAVE (Pathways to Advocacy Against Violence Every day)

PAAVE, Center for Hope’s Pathways to Advocacy Against Violence Every Day (PAAVE) supports Baltimore City’s most at-risk children providing supportive case management, outreach, family engagement and advocacy services to families who have experienced homicide and shootings. PAAVE identifies the immediate and long-term needs of the client and their family unit. The goal of PAAVE is to provide intensive support and links to opportunities that will boost youth and family protective factors and prevent further community violence.

Kujichagulia Center

Kuji Youth Radio is an after-school youth engagement program that fosters and strengthens professional, creative and critical thinking skills with a goal of teaching youth to use multi-media platforms to share their voices and be engaged as changemakers.

Safe Streets - Belvedere Neighborhood

Safe Streets engages communities by building relationships that lead to community cohesion and ultimately prevent shootings. Safe Streets utilizes a team of Violence Interrupters to sustain previous efforts to eradicate violence by identifying and detecting potential shooting events and identifying and detecting individuals and groups at highest risk of involvement of shooting or killing. The Safe Streets teams interrupts potential violence by mediating conflicts and preventing retaliation, changing behaviors and norms of those at highest risk of involvement of shooting or killing and using data to inform daily efforts and make necessary changes to interruption strategies. Safe Streets sites serve as safe spaces for relationship-building, workforce development, community meetings, and other collaborations for high-risk youth and young adults throughout the community. The goal of Safe Streets is to shift the trajectory of violence by changing norms within the community.

Sinai Hospital-based Violence Response Team

The Violence Response Team (VRT) of Sinai Hospital is comprised of specially trained individuals who assist patients experiencing trauma and/or injury as a result of an act of violence with resources to improve their health and well-being, lessen the impact of trauma, and decrease the likelihood of the reoccurrence of violence. VRT is a 24/7 crisis response program designed to assist those who are victims of domestic violence also known as intimate partner violence, community violence, and elder abuse. Our goal is to ensure safety, offer emotional support, and connect patients to comprehensive community-based services and resources.

Preventing Child Abuse, Exploitation and Human Trafficking

Child Advocacy Center

A nationally accredited children’s advocacy center serving Baltimore for over 30 years, Center for Hope’s Child Advocacy Center (formerly Baltimore Child Abuse Center) is one of the country’s top violence intervention and prevention agencies, aimed at caring for children and family members affected by violence. As the primary advocate for victims and point of contact for child-sensitive investigations and follow-up, the Child Advocacy Center eliminates the lengthy, repetitive, and often traumatic process that previously existed in Baltimore City. The Center’s activities focus on intervention when abuse is reported, treatment to aid in the healing of survivors and their families, education around recognizing, preventing and reporting suspicions of abuse, and advocacy at the local, state and national levels. The Child Advocacy Center’s comprehensive services in these areas address the immediate and long-term challenges child sexual abuse and adverse childhood experiences pose to the Baltimore region.

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Providing Elder Justice

Elder Justice

Elder Abuse is physical, emotional, or sexual harm inflicted upon an older adult. It also includes financial exploitation or neglect of an older adult’s welfare by people who are directly responsible for their care. About 1 in 10 Americans over age 60 are abused, neglected or financially exploited. Partnering with experts at Levindale and Sinai hospitals, the Elder Justice Center provides rapid response, forensic interviewing and mental health services for elders who have experienced physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse. This also includes financial and material abuse, neglect, and loss of dignity and respect. The center provides outreach, intervention and prevention programs to enable elder community members to live safely with dignity and respect.

Stopping Domestic, Family and Interpersonal Violence

Domestic Violence Response

The Center for Hope includes hospital-based responses in three LifeBridge Health hospitals, Grace Medical Center in West Baltimore, Northwest Hospital in Randallstown and Sinai Hospital of Baltimore that assist patients and community members with free and confidential services.

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Youth Programs

DIVAS

DIVAS is a group for young women, 12 to 16 years old, who have experienced some type of trauma in their lives. The goal of the DIVAS program is to assist young women in identifying their life goals and preparing them to attain those goals. This is a 30-week program that engages young women in fun activities to teach communication skills, personal safety and conflict resolution while building self-esteem, developing sisterhood and exploring their communities. Activities include workshops on body language and communication as well as field trips.

Mental Health Programs

The Mental Health Program (MHP) provides trauma-focused, evidence-based outpatient psychotherapeutic services to Baltimore City residents recovering from traumatic life experiences across the lifespan, as young as 3 years-old.

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