Direct Services
If you know of a child in need of assistance or help, or if you’re interested in volunteer opportunities, consider contacting one of the following organizations.
Big Brothers Big Sisters
The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors who will have a measurable impact on them as they grow into young adults. By working to create successful mentoring relationships for all children who need and want them, Big Brothers Big Sisters contributes to brighter futures, better schools, and stronger communities for all. Learn more about becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister or enroll a child today!
Childhelp
Childhelp® exists to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused, neglected, and at-risk children. It focuses on advocacy, prevention, treatment, and community outreach for these children. You can access its Childhelp® National Child Abuse Hotline and its staff of professional crisis counselors 24 hours daily from anywhere in the United States, its territories, and Canada. Through interpreters, communication is possible in more than 150 languages. The confidential and anonymous hotline offers crisis intervention, information, literature, and referrals to thousands of emergency, social service, and support resources. If you need help or have questions about child abuse or child neglect, call the hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453).
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, (501)(c)(3) nonprofit organization created in 1984 to serve as the Nation’s resource for issues regarding missing and sexually exploited children. NCMEC provides information and resources to law enforcement, other professionals, parents, and children, including child victims themselves. If you have any information regarding a missing child or a child who is a victim of sexual exploitation, call NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678) 24 hours a day.
National Children’s Advocacy Center
The National Children’s Advocacy Center models, promotes, and delivers excellence in child abuse response and prevention through service, education, and leadership. Visit its Web site to find a Child Advocacy Center near you.
National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association
The National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association, together with its state and local members, supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children so that they can thrive in safe, permanent homes. National CASA also offers information to help launch new programs and strengthen existing ones, including resources for Tribal Court CASA. Are you ready to stand up for a child who needs you? Start by finding a program near you.
National Domestic Violence Hotline
The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides 24-hour support through advocacy, safety planning, and other resources to everyone affected by domestic violence. It is the only domestic violence hotline in the Nation with access to more than 4,000 shelters and domestic violence programs throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in more than 170 different languages through interpreter services, with a TTY line available for Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and hard of hearing individuals. The hotline is toll free, confidential, and anonymous. Call now at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY).
National Human Trafficking Resource Center
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a confidential, national, 24-hour, toll free, anti-trafficking hotline operated by the Polaris Project and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NHTRC works to improve the national response to human trafficking to protect victims of this crime in the United States. NHTRC is equipped to handle calls from all regions of the country and from a wide range of callers including, but not limited to, potential trafficking victims, community members, law enforcement, medical professionals, legal professionals, service providers, researchers, students, and policymakers. To report a tip or connect with anti-trafficking services in your area, call the hotline at 1–888–373–7888. Interpreters are available upon request.
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) is the Nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization. RAINN operates both the National Sexual Assault Hotline by phone and the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline. RAINN publicizes the hotline’s free, confidential services; educates the public about sexual assault; and leads national efforts to prevent sexual assault, improve services for victims, and ensure that rapists are brought to justice. If you or a loved one has been raped or sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline for help.
Informational Resources
Learn about federal, state, and nonprofit organizations that are working to build a safer environment for America’s youth.
Adults and Children Together Against Violence
The American Psychological Association’s Adults and Children Together Against Violence (ACT) program teaches communities and adults how to create safe, healthy environments that protect children and youth from violence. ACT disseminates research-based information and teaches skills to adults with simple, accessible, user-friendly messages and materials. Learn how to get involved with ACT in your community!
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 pediatricians who are committed to helping all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults attain optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being. Visit HealthyChildren.org for information related to child health, such as nutrition, fitness, immunizations, and emotional wellness, as well as specific guidance on parenting issues. Also, you may find a pediatrician or ask a pediatrician a health question through the organization’s Web site.
Defending Childhood
Defending Childhood is an initiative of Attorney General Eric Holder that strives to harness resources from throughout the Department of Justice to prevent children’s exposure to violence, mitigate the negative impact of children’s exposure to violence when it does occur, and develop knowledge and spread awareness about children’s exposure to violence.
FindYouthInfo.gov
FindYouthInfo.gov was created by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, which is composed of representatives from 12 federal agencies that support programs and services focusing on youth. The group promotes the goals of positive, healthy outcomes for youth by developing findyouthinfo.gov, identifying and disseminating promising and effective strategies, and promoting enhanced collaboration.
National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation works to promote the healthy development of children and youth and to end their sexual abuse and exploitation.
National Indian Child Welfare Association
The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) works to address the issues of child abuse and neglect through training, research, public policy, and grassroots community development. It also works to support compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families. NICWA improves the lives of American Indian children and families by helping tribes and other service providers implement services that are culturally competent, community based, and focused on the strengths and assets of families. This work includes collaborating with tribal and urban Indian child welfare programs to increase their service capacity, enhance tribal-state relationships, build alliances, and provide training, technical assistance, and information services.
National Native Children’s Trauma Center
The mission of the National Native Children’s Trauma Center is to address high rates of traumatic stress among American Indian/Alaska Native children by working under the guidance of U.S. tribal nations in implementing, adapting, and evaluating interventions to assist children’s recovery from trauma. This work requires all involved to understand, respect, and honor tribal sovereignty; address specific community needs; and use traditional healing practices.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Established by Congress in 2000, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network is a collaboration of academic and community-based service centers whose mission is to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for traumatized children and their families throughout the United States. Combining knowledge of child development, expertise in the full range of traumatic experiences that children may endure, and attention to cultural perspectives, the network serves as a national resource for developing and disseminating evidence-based interventions, trauma-informed services, and public and professional education.
Prevent Child Abuse America
The mission of Prevent Child Abuse America is to “prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation’s children" by addressing all forms of abuse and neglect, whether physical, sexual, educational, or emotional. Visit the Prevent Child Abuse America Web site now to learn more about child abuse prevention and to find out how you can get involved in your state.
Safe Start Center
The Safe Start Center is a national resource center designed to broaden the scope of knowledge and resources available for responding to the needs of children who are exposed to violence. The center supports practitioners, advocates, families, and the general public. It also disseminates, and provides on request, information about emerging practices and research concerning children and families exposed to violence.
stopbullying.gov
Bullying can happen anywhere: face-to-face, by text message, or on the Web. Visit stopbullying.gov to learn the warning signs of bullying and how to get help. This site provides information from various government agencies on how kids, teens, young adults, parents, educators, and others in the community can prevent or stop bullying.
White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative
The Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative is a new, place-based approach to helping neighborhoods in distress transform themselves into neighborhoods of opportunity. It involves the White House Domestic Policy Council, the White House Office of Urban Affairs, and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Treasury in supporting local solutions for revitalizing and transforming neighborhoods. The interagency strategy is designed to catalyze and empower local action while busting silos, prioritizing public-private partnerships, and making existing programs more effective and efficient.
Additional Information
Read about programs that OVC is funding to develop more innovative ways of addressing the needs of young victims.
Flandreau Indian School
OVC is partnering with the Flandreau Indian School (FIS) to provide mental health support to FIS’s American Indian and Alaska Native students and to help them develop stronger, more effective, culturally appropriate, and healthy coping strategies for addressing lifetime and historical exposure to violence, trauma, and victimization. During the next 4 years, FIS will work with OVC to establish a trauma-informed system of care by providing ongoing training and technical assistance to all levels and types of school staff and students. Concurrently, FIS will use dedicated positions to provide consistent mental health services and related programming (e.g., recreational therapeutic programs) to respond to students’ immediate needs.
Girls Educational and Mentoring Services Inc.
Girls Educational and Mentoring Services’ (GEMS) works to end commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children by changing individual lives, transforming public perceptions, revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact sexually exploited youth, and otherwise empowering girls and young women so they may leave the sex industry and develop to their full potential. OVC has provided funding for GEMS to support the delivery of training and technical assistance and develop a program guide for serving commercially sexually exploited and trafficked girls and young women.
National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs
The National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs at Drexel University is a network of more than 15 hospital-based intervention programs nationwide working with young men of color who have been victims of violence—from their entry into the hospital, at their bedside, and through their discharge. The network will provide training and technical assistance for its frontline staff to enhance their ability to meet the needs of crime victims, specifically African-American and Latino males, by teaching staff to employ a trauma-informed approach to their work. This approach to training and technical assistance will be developed and pilot tested for potential use by traditional victim service providers.
Save Our Streets Crown Heights Program
The Save Our Streets (SOS) Crown Heights Program will enhance its case management services to better address the needs of young men of color who are victims of crime and their families. The center will develop protocols for SOS and victim service agencies to use to implement culturally competent victim services and support groups. It also will provide training on victimization for SOS staff, and create best- practice documents and toolkits for violence intervention projects that may want to replicate the SOS effort.
Services for Domestic Minor Victims of Human Trafficking—Demonstration Project
In Fiscal Year 2009, OVC funded a 3-year demonstration project to explore how services may be provided to victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking, who are U.S. Citizens or lawful permanent residents under age 18. The following three demonstration sites were funded to provide direct services to trafficking victims and to develop, enhance, or expand the community response to U.S. youth involved in all forms of human trafficking within specific geographic areas.
Visit the FY 2011 OVC Grantee Matrix for more information!
Check out OVC’s News & Program Updates, a valuable tool for sharing information about OVC initiatives, events, and other items of special interest.
 OVC News & Program Updates (November 2011) (PDF 687 kb)
This edition offers information about one of our most vulnerable victim populations: America’s children. Articles in this issue highlight—
- The impact of child identity theft.
- OVC’s partnership with a school in Indian Country to address victimization among students.
- A community-based approach to providing services to drug endangered children.
- Research conducted on children’s exposure to violence.
- The goals of the U.S. Department of Justice's Defending Childhood initiative.
- Human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
 OVC News & Program Updates (April 2011) (PDF 1.9 mb)
This issue highlights—
- Victims’ voices.
- Outreach to underserved victims.
- National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.
- The Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services Initiative.
- The Tribal Victim Assistance in Alaska Fellowship.
- The 12th National Indian Nations Conference.
Topical Resources
Click on one of the topics below to access publications, related links, frequently asked questions, solicitations, discussions with experts in the field, and much more.
Child Abuse
Children Exposed to Violence
Dating Violence
Helping Children
Human Trafficking
Teen and Youth Violence
|
