COMPASS Youth Collaborative interrupts violence in the City of Hartford by building transformative relationships with youth at the center of the violence. COMPASS Peacebuilders provide youth tools to create sustained behavior change and transition successfully to adulthood.
What We Do and How We Do It
COMPASS Youth Collaborative helps Hartford's most disconnected youth navigate the barriers that keep them from succeeding in education, employment, and life.
Young adulthood, between the ages of 16 to 24, is a period of transition. Most young people enter this stage dependent on individuals and systems to meet their basic needs, provide guidance and emotional support and help them transition into productive adults.
Youths living surrounded by violence are in a constant "survival brain" state. The brain is highjacked and ready to respond to threats against their life; therefore, they cannot learn, think, grow, or make sound decisions. The prefrontal cortex and executive function are not able to work or be developed appropriately.
The transition to successful adulthood can be challenging for those without essential support and living in a constant flight state. Add the effects of trauma, inability to trust others, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and anger, the transition to successful adulthood becomes a road full of barriers.
Peacebuilders activities begin on the streets, where our staff connect with young people and start building trusting relationships in order to engage them in positive activities year-round. COMPASS works with these youth for 1-4 years. This timeframe is intentional, because we know that the issues confronting our participants resist quick fixes. That’s because the youth that COMPASS serves are among the most deeply impacted by trauma and violence in Hartford, and not yet equipped with the skills needed to succeed in traditional positive youth and workforce development programs.
COMPASS provides the following :
COMPASS connects with Hartford's highest-risk youth wherever they are. We engage them in relationships to provide support and opportunities that help them become ready, willing, and able to succeed in education, employment, and life.
Program Components
COMPASS works with youth, giving them the tools they need to succeed in education, employment, and life. We embed Cognitive Behavior Theory in everything we do.
Supporting Youth's Mental Health
Using Cognitive Behavior Theory, our staff works with youth to help them understand the relationship between how they feel and what they do. Our Licensed Clinical Social Workers and Peacebuilders provide life-saving skills, helping youth slow down, stop, and focus on what's in front of them so they can make better decisions.
Responding to Crises and Canvassing Neighborhoods
Peacebuilders canvas the streets, connecting with young people and building trusting relationships. During times of crisis, we work in the community to deescalate the tension and build peace.
We are the only community-based violence interruption program in Hartford.
Our Education Specialists work with youth, reconnecting them to education, whether in traditional classrooms, earning their GED, or obtaining licensures and attending trade schools
Prepearing Youth for Employment
Youth work with Job Specialists who provide basic employment training (professional skills, time management) and financial literacy education. We give youth a safe place to fail, learn from their failure, and try again.
COMPASS’s Training for Employment Program is designed for youth who are not ready for traditional job placement programs;
TEP Job Specialists provide youth with the essential professional skills they need to succeed in employment.
Cognitive Behavior Theory skills are embedded in TEP, helping youth better understand the connection between their thoughts, emotions, and actions.
COMPASS provides youth with a safe place to learn new skills, practice those skills, fail, learn from their failures, and try again.
Hospital Violence Intervention Program
Trauma experts know It takes more than just medical intervention to treat young people injured by community violence. They also know that the best time to improve lives and reduce retaliation and recidivism is during the "golden hour" when a patient arrives in the emergency room.
COMPASS's Crisis Response Program is designed to meet victims of community violence during that "golden hour" at the bedside in the emergency room. Using a trauma-informed approach, our team advocates for victims of violence and their families while in the hospital.
Upon discharge, the team works with the youth and their families to develop a plan that meets their safety needs and provides case management and physical and emotional healing services.
COMPASS is proud to be a member of HAVI, The National Health Alliance for Violence Intervention. Hospital Intervention Programs promote survivors' physical and emotional recovery.
