Preventing Children's Exposure to Violence: The Defending Childhood Initiative

To help address the problem of children's exposure to violence, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder launched the Defending Childhood Initiative in 2010. Eight project demonstration sites were selected to develop, implement and test plans designed to reduce children's exposure to violence in their communities. This article describes the demonstration's two phases and the formative evaluation of Phase I, Assessment and Strategic Planning, which ended in April 2011. Phase II, Implementation and Evaluation, began in October 2011 and will run until September 2013. The evaluations will help researchers and practitioners better understand what works in reducing and mitigating children's exposure to violence so that evidence-based policies and programs can be developed and put into place.