The Child Witness to Violence Project (CWVP) is a therapeutic, advocacy, and outreach project that focuses on the growing number of young children who are hidden victims of domestic and community violence and other trauma-related events.

CWVP is staffed by a multi-cultural staff of social workers, psychologists, early childhood specialists, a consulting pediatrician and consulting attorney. It is run under the auspices of the Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center.

Goals of the project include:

• To identify young children who witness acts of significant violence.
• To help young children heal from the trauma of witnessing violence by providing developmentally appropriate counseling for them and for their families.
• To provide consultation and training to the network of caregivers in the lives of young children in order that they may more effectively identify and respond to children who are exposed to violence.

• Neena McConnico, PhD, Carmen Rosa Norona, LCSW, and Courtney Bailey, LICSW, presented at the 30th National Training Institute hosted by Zero to Three in December 2015:
  • Banishing the Ghosts of Historical Trauma: Child-Parent Psychotherapy With Latin American Immigrant Mothers and Their Children; Carmen Rosa Norona, LCSW
  • Walking the Walk: Implementing Inclusion and Equity Principles in Early Childhood Programs With the Aid of Diversity-Informed Infant mental Health Tenets; Carmen Rosa Norona, LCSW
  • Infusing Trauma-Informed Practices Into Early Childhood Education Programs; Neena McConnico, PhD, Courtney Bailey, LICSW
  • “Colorism”: A Legacy of Historical Trauma in Parent-Child and Client-Practitioner Relationships; Neena McConnico, PhD, Carmen Rosa Norona, LCSW
  • Use of the Fussy Baby FAN Approach When Working With Spanish-Speaking Families; Carmen Rosa Norona, LCSW
• Neena McConnico, PhD, received a 2015 Women of Excellence award from Youth Villages.

In this issue brief, Betsy McAlister Groves and Marilyn Augustyn discuss the role pediatric care practitioners play in screening children for health and social risks, especially exposure to violence.