During FY 2024 ARCHS awarded $1 million in state of Missouri VOCA funding to a network of community partners to increase and enhance support services for crime victims and victimized communities. Through the Neighborhood Healing Network (NHN), ARCHS leads a multi-faceted collaboration between trusted area organizations known for their support of under resourced families and neighborhoods dealing with violence and trauma/post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).
Each funded partner offers unique expertise and has close relationships with neighborhood residents, businesses, and faith-based organizations. The partners work closely together and use common objective/outcome, training, referral, reporting, communication, and evaluation processes. ARCHS’ funded NHN partners include:
-Alive & Well Communities (Trauma/PTSD trainings)
-Better Family Life (Crime victim resource hub)
-Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis (Crime victim resource hub)
-Crime Victim Center (Crime victim support services)
-Fathers & Families Support Center (Crime victim resource hub)
-Mission: St. Louis (Crime victim resource hub)
-Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (Crime victim resource hub)
ARCHS launched NHN in August of 2020 with funding provided by the Missouri Department of Social Services (Victims of Crime Act/VOCA). In 2022, ARCHS’ NHN was recognized by FOCUS St. Louis with a What’s Right With the Region award as an emerging initiative.
NHN has dramatically grown the availability of specialized support for crime victims (not specific to any one type of crime) from one city-based location to six, placing services directly in the neighborhoods experiencing violence and trauma/PTSD and providing multi-faceted trauma-informed care and services.
Over the past year, ARCHS’ NHN has achieved the following results:
-671 victims of crime served and provided more than 1128 acted upon referrals to area crime victim support/social service agencies.
-55 individual counseling sessions with 165 hours of counseling provided to NHN clients.
-97% of clients reported a positive experience accessing NHN services and 80% recommended NHN services to others.
-34 (126 hours) trauma education and support workshops conducted for NHN partner staff and community residents.