Pitt Pediatrics congratulates the Empowering Teens to Thrive (ET3) program for receiving the 2022-23 Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD).
The VIP grant comes from $100 million in grants awarded by the PCCD in an effort to reduce gun and group violence across Pennsylvania. PCCD awarded $88.6 million in VIP grants to 122 projects throughout the state, with $1.2 million going towards ET3.
Led by director Alison Culyba, MD, PhD, MPH alongside Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD, and Sarah London, LSW, the ET3 is a program developed to support teens who visit UPMC Children’s Hospital after violent injuries or events. This program offers advice and mental health services while also linking youth and families to support in their neighborhoods. They do so by providing medical follow-ups and trauma response support. The program also has school and legal support and connect families to food and housing resources. This is all in effort to promote healing and to avoid re-injury.