Violence Prevention & Intervention Program (VPIP)

Helping immigrant youth recover from trauma and thrive in their home, school, and community

The overall goal of NVFS’ Violence Prevention and Intervention Program (VPIP) is to reduce family and community violence in specific high-need neighborhoods in Fairfax County (Culmore, Annandale, and Herndon) and Loudoun County by intervening with at-risk youth and families experiencing multiple, complex needs.

Utilizing highly effective youth service delivery models, NVFS provides holistic “neighborhood based-school connected” services designed to ensure that at-risk immigrant youth and families are able to thrive in their chosen communities, succeed academically and socially, and are equipped to prevent future community and family violence. Each target community is staffed by a culturally competent clinician team with expertise in counseling, family engagement, trauma recovery, and gang and community violence interventions.

Immigrant families living in poverty can struggle to access needed therapeutic services due to the barriers of transportation, language, and schedule. VPIP counselors meet with youth and families at locations convenient for them, typically in their home or community, at a time that works for them, and provide services in Spanish or English.

What does VPIP offer?

Individual and Family Services▼
  • Individual and Family Counseling
  • Intensive Case Management
Group Based Services▼
  • Educational Workshops for Parents
  • Pscyhoeducation Groups for Youth
  • Youth Skill Building Workshops
Core Topics for Youth Workshops & Groups▼
  • Acculturation for Recently Arrived Youth
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Communication skills
  • Stress Management/Coping Skills
  • Goal Setting/Future orientation
  • Healthy Relationships –Dating, Friends, Gangs, Parents, Adults
  • Family Reunification – stages, normalizing, steps towards progress, when further help is needed
  • Asking for Help/Sources of Support
  • Resistance & Refusal skills
  • Decision Making Process
  • Self- identity – defining, displaying, developing
  • Know your rights – immigration, police, school, at home, work, as a child
  • Internet Safety
Core Topics for Parent Workshops▼
  • Family Reunification
  • Internet Safety –from a parenting, non-technical perspective
  • Gang Prevention
  • Keeping your kids safe in the community (gangs, internet, etc.)
  • Preparing for the youth’s arrival from home country
  • What Caregivers should know about Medical and Emotional Health for Recently Arrived Youth
  • Trauma 101 for Parents
  • Communication
  • Creating Safety and Structure in your home
  • Youth Us Norms/Perspectives
  • Know your Rights
Core Topics for Professional Development▼
  • Responding to the Needs of Gang Involved Youth
  • Federal Immigration Process for Children and Youth
  • Working with Recently Immigrated Youth from Central America: Immigrant Parent and Child Family Dynamics and the Immigration Process
  • Understanding and Responding to Trauma in Student Populations: A Trauma Informed Perspective
  • Vulnerability and Central American Youth: Interventions and Strategies
What’s the cost and how do I refer someone?▼
  • The program is free to eligible youth and their families.
  • Contact the Clinical Program Manager for more information and to submit or download the referral form.
Who is eligible?▼

Children and youth who can be referred to VPIP are children and youth who are either an immigrant or child of an immigrant(s) living in poverty and targeted areas of Northern Virginia who are demonstrating at-risk behaviors or poor decision-making who meet one or both of the following criteria:

  • Recently reunified with parents after separation due to immigration
  • Exposed to violence (as a victim or witness) in the community, in the family (domestic, dating, and / or family violence), in the past (in country of origin / on journey to US) and/or through the presence of gangs in neighborhood / school.
  • That person’s family

Contact

Lauren Mizus
Clinical Program Manager
lmizus@nvfs.org/ 571.748.2940

VPIP Referral Form

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