Program to support kids in trauma expands beyond Manchester

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — A program that helps police connect social workers with children who have witnessed traumatic events is expanding in New Hampshire.

The state’s first Adverse Childhood Experience Response Team was created in Manchester in 2016 after police counted 400 children who had witnessed domestic violence, drug overdoses and other trauma in the previous year but had not been referred to any supportive services. Since then, the program has helped hundreds of children and has received national attention.

New Hampshire Public Radio reports that at least five other New Hampshire communities are looking to start their own teams.

Erin Pettengill is the director of the Family Resource Center in Laconia. She says police often see children during domestic violence calls but are not in a position to help.

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Information from: WEVO-FM, http://www.nhpr.org/