CENTER FOR COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS
4508 MISSION BAY DRIVE, SAN DIEGO, CA 92109 www.ccssd.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: THE MISSION IS TO END RELATIONSHIP AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE BY BEING A CATALYST FOR CARING COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. THE VISION IS FOR ALL PEOPLE TO LIVE FULL, FREE, EXPRESSIVE, AND EMPOWERED LIVES IN A SAFE, HEALTHY, VIBRANT, AND PEACEFUL COMMUNITY.

Legal, Counseling, and Advocacy Services (LCAS):Intimate Partner Violence Services (IPVS): IPVS services are provided in East, Central, and North San Diego County. Three full-time victim advocates provide crisis counseling, safety planning, intimate partner violence lethality assessments, court accompaniment, application assistance, information, referrals, and emotional support to victims of intimate partner violence. Advocates are experts in local resources. They utilize their community connections to help survivors access safe housing, legal services, counseling, immigration services, food, clothing, and other support services. IPVS is led by a full-time Legal Team Manager and provides services at the El Cajon Courthouse, and CCS East, Central, and North Offices. This free, confidential service is available in English and Spanish with additional languages, including sign languages, provided by certified interpreter services. CCS continued its expansion of services to survivors of intimate partner violence by offering Domestic Abuse Forensic Exams (DAFE) accompaniment. In conjunction with countywide efforts to better respond to individuals who have been severely injured or strangled, CCS provides accompaniment and advocacy to IPV survivors during and after forensic exams.Sexual Assault Services (SAS) - SAS is one of the largest state-funded rape crisis centers in California. SAS covers most of San Diego County, spanning a territory nearly the size of the state of Connecticut. SAS provides an in-person emergency response to every sexual assault victim in its service area who undergoes a sexual assault forensic examination. CCS volunteers and staff are scheduled around-the-clock to respond within 30 minutes of a call-out, and they remain by a victims side throughout the entire forensic examination process. SAS is staffed by four full-time victim advocates and two program managers who provide follow-up services after the emergency response. Additionally, the SAS team includes two full-time advocates who are out-stationed at San Diego State University and San Diego Community College District (City College, Miramar College, and Mesa College) to provide SAS advocacy on campus. This team also supports victims who are referred from other sources, including self-referrals and walk-ins. SAS services include crisis counseling, safety planning, trauma-informed client services, and help with connecting to other resources, including counseling, legal services, housing, medical care, food, clothing, and immigration assistance. Advocates also provide in-person emotional support during detective and attorney interviews, preliminary hearings, and other court events.CCS is a founding member of the San Diego countywide Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), a 38-year-old collaborative project which includes civilian, military, and tribal advocates, law enforcement, sexual assault forensic nurse, crime lab, and prosecutorial agencies. All members of SART meet monthly, cross-train, and follow a standard response protocol to ensure compassionate, survivor-centered services.Legal Services: With a staff of eight California-licensed attorneys, CCS highly skilled legal team is the largest pro bono legal team, serving survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, in San Diego County. CCS legal services include:Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) - Staffed by the full-time Legal Team Manager and two staff attorneys, LAV provides civil legal remedies and direct representation for victims of sexual assault. LAV specializes in the civil legal needs of sexual assault victims in the following areas: housing, employment, education, privacy, safety, and financial compensation, as well as Civil Harassment Restraining Orders. The program assists survivors with immigration concerns through a subcontract with Casa Cornelia Law Center. LAV is San Diegos go-to legal services program for privacy law (representing victims in criminal court), and Title IX issues (sexual violence as discrimination) throughout the County. LAV is the only sexual assault-specific direct representation legal services program in San Diego County.Domestic Violence Legal Services: One full-time attorney provides restraining order assistance twenty (20) hours per week at the El Cajon Courthouse, and pro per family law assistance twenty (20) hours per week at CCS East County Office, including filling out paperwork, client consultations, and hearing preparation. North County Legal Services (XL): One full-time attorney and one full-time legal advocate provide pro per legal services, including filling out paperwork, client consultations, and hearing preparation for victims of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and stalking in the North Region.High Risk Teams: CCS attorneys also coordinate San Diego Countys Central, East, and North High-Risk Teams, a multidisciplinary response team that includes law enforcement, the City and District Attorneys Offices, several intimate partner violence service providers, and Probation. This team meets monthly in each region to collaborate and conduct case reviews in order to increase the safety of victims who are at serious risk of intimate partner violence-related homicide.Trauma-Specific Counseling: CCS operates counseling programs in North, Central, and East County. A team of four Marriage and Family Therapists provide individual, group, family, and child counseling using a variety of best practice, trauma-specific approaches, including trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), guided imagery, expressive arts therapy, play therapy, sand tray therapy, and mindfulness therapies. Our counseling program includes up to five masters-level Marriage and Family Therapy or Social Work Intern students who receive intensive training, supervision, and commit twenty hours per week to CCS. Moreover, CCS was awarded a child-focused grant to expand our therapeutic services to youth (see CHAT), including additional Marriage and Family Therapists and a Child Advocate. The child advocacy allows CCS to ensure that all youth seeking support to heal from trauma have wrap-around, holistic resources and referrals suited to their unique needs. Individual and group counseling for adults and children is also offered on-site at our business offices and short-term emergency shelters.Child Abuse Treatment (CHAT): The trauma of childhood abuse can impact a childs overall wellness. The CHAT program offers trauma-specific therapy and advocacy services to address the effects of trauma. CCS focuses on the childs strengths and where the child needs support in order to improve their coping strategies and opportunities for healthy life choices. All services are available in English and Spanish. The CHAT program serves children who are under the age of 18 and victims of intimate partner violence, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse and neglect as well as witness to violence or a crime. CCS offers these services with two Marriage and Family Therapists and one Child Advocate. Therapists create a safe trauma-informed environment to improve coping strategies, decision-making and assist in the development of skills to manage emotions and behaviors. In addition, advocates provide coordination with schools and other agencies involved with the childs wellbeing. CCS Child Advocates provide information and support that includes crisis intervention, safety planning, court accompaniment, victim of crime assistance, monitoring academic progress, and assist in parent education.

Housing and Advocacy Services (HAS):Intimate Partner Violence Shelters: CCS operates both short-term and long-term confidential intimate partner violence shelters. Project Safe House (PSH) is a short-term 24-bed intimate partner violence shelter located in East San Diego County, and Hidden Valley House (HVH) is our short-term 35-bed intimate partner violence shelter located in North Inland Region of San Diego County. Both shelters are staffed 24-hours per day by certified intimate partner violence counselors. Intimate partner violence victims and their children are sheltered in these programs for up to two months. While living in the shelter they receive advocacy, counseling, safety planning, client services, legal assistance, food, clothing, transportation assistance, and other services and resources to help them stabilize and transition to more permanent housing. Next Step is our long-term confidential intimate partner violence shelter program where families that need more time to get on their feet can stay up to eighteen months. Next Step families are housed in one apartment at PSH and five, two-bedroom units in a separate facility called Next Step North. In total, Next Step offers up to 40 beds for long-term shelter. All CCS intimate partner violence shelter programs accept adults and children of all genders. Shelter services are offered in English and Spanish with additional languages, including sign languages, provided by certified interpreter services.DV Housing First: Established in 2018, CCS addresses long-term safe and stable housing as a key component to long-term survivor self-sufficiency. The program improves the way communities respond to intimate partner and sexual violence by integrating housing stability into advocacy, assisting survivors with accessing and/or retaining housing. With the addition of a Housing Coordinator, services include mobile advocacy, community outreach, and financial assistance for rent and other supportive services.Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Hotline Counseling: CCS provides toll-free, confidential, 24-hour hotline crisis counseling, safety planning, information, and referrals to a host of follow-up services, including counseling, advocacy, legal assistance, medical care, shelter, food, and clothing. Hotline counseling is provided by certified Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victim Counselors, in English and Spanish, with additional languages provided by certified interpreter services. CCS Hotline staff and volunteers, which includes a Hotline Coordinator, assist approximately 5,000 callers annually.

Prevention, Education, and Advocacy Services (PEAS:Healthy Relationships & Violence Prevention Education: CCS is invested in the promotion of healthy relationships and the prevention of sexual and intimate partner violence through interactive, empowering education focused on topics related to the development of healthy relationships skills. For example, healthy communication and conflict resolution skills, consent- and boundary-setting, and how to challenge social norms and media messages that perpetuate violence throughout our communities. CCS prevention education programs are available in English and Spanish and are generally provided in schools or other community settings in a developmentally and culturally humble manner. Athlete Upstander Prevention Education continued in which CCS provided healthy relationships and bystander intervention trainings to all incoming first-year student athletes at San Diego State University.Teen Dating Violence Prevention Education (TDV): TDV education programs are delivered in a multi-unit format, offered as a series of three to five workshops. This gives participants multiple opportunities over time to practice and refine the healthy relationship skills they are learning. TDV also allows ample time for participants to work with their peers to identify ways they can stand up against intimate partner and sexual violence and create change by challenging the social norms that perpetuate violence. In addition to serving students from kindergarten to college, CCS staff also provides trainings for teachers and parents, addressing the importance of modeling healthy relationship, communication, and conflict resolution skills as they interact with youth. CCS Prevention & Community Engagement Specialists encourage parents to engage in meaningful conversations with their children, starting as early as preschool, understanding that healthy relationship skills can become wonderful habits if taught early on. During FY 2020, CCS has had formal partnerships with Escondido Unified High School District, Cherokee Point Elementary School, Wilson Middle School, San Diego State University, San Diego Court and Community Schools, and San Diego County Probation Department. Moreover, for youth in detention, the prevention team facilitates a 3-unit core curriculum, with an advanced series offered to young men who complete the first series and then apply to attend the advanced course. CCS prevention staff value the opportunity to support the marginalized youth who live at the intersection of having been harmed and having done harm.Close to Home (C2H) - Rape Prevention Education (RPE) Grant: Community mobilization models have come to the forefront of prevention efforts for both their innovative nature and their ability to incite sustainable change. The CCS prevention team continued its work with one such model - Close to Home (C2H). The C2H model was selected by the California Department of Public Health as a promising practice for sexual violence prevention, and CCS is now implementing it in City Heights the countys most populous neighborhood. Through the C2H project, an intergenerational team of City Heights residents will facilitate the development of community-designed and community-specific prevention actions. The C2H model has a demonstrated track record of producing empowering, community-led change. CCS is one of a handful of grant awardees currently implementing C2H as a sexual violence prevention strategy in the state of California.Family Violence Prevention Grant: Based on a grant award to provide higher-risk youth populations with dating violence prevention education, the PEAS team has adapted the multi-unit core curriculum to address the particular needs of the homeless, foster, and LGBTQ+ youth populations all of which are disproportionately impacted by intimate partner and sexual violence. This program also provides prevention education trainings to adult allies and advocates and includes the creation of a violence prevention resource guide for youth and a related ally/advocate guide for enhancing supportive community networks for foster, homeless, and LGBTQ youth.

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