Project Ujima
Project Ujima is a multidisciplinary collaboration addressing youth and adult violence through individual, family and community intervention and prevention strategies. Services include crisis intervention and case management, social and emotional support, youth development and mentoring, and mental health and medical services.
Specifically, Project Ujima addresses the needs of youth victims of violence who come to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin's Emergency Department/Trauma Center by:
- Providing treatment which promotes physical and psychosocial recovery.
- Linking victims at the time of discharge to community-based organizations in order to provide long-term psychosocial intervention.
Project Ujima also provides services to adult crime victims. These services include:
- Crisis intervention.
- Case management.
- Social and emotional support.
 Mental health services.
- Court and victim advocacy.
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin's Project Ujima helped Jackie Baldwin and her family get back on their feet after a violent crime nearly killed her son. Watch a video to learn more:
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Vision
The program is designed to promote safe, violence-free communities by empowering youth and their families to improve their quality of life. Project Ujima promotes holistic healing, equipping families with preventive strategies, fostering self-sufficiency and leadership, and advocating for the creation of social and economic justice.
Mission
The mission of Project Ujima, a community project, is to stop the cycle  of violent crimes by reducing the number of repeat victims of violence through individual, family and community interventions and prevention strategies.
Goals
- Reduce the physical and psychosocial consequences of the injury.
- Reduce the chances of re-injury.
- Prevent the victim from becoming a violent offender.
Key elements
- Hospital-based services that are culturally and developmentally appropriate, including medical care, peer support, crisis intervention and social and emotional assessment.
- Home-based services, including medical follow-up of injuries, evaluation of primary health care needs, psychological screening for patient and family mental health needs and ongoing individual, group or family counseling.
- Community-based services, including mentoring, youth development, family and youth support groups, gang interventions, job preparedness and advocacy to address legal, education and housing issues.
- Community and professional education about youth violence, including seminars on youth violence and youth development, participation and support of community based-activities and forums, and community-based crisis support and debriefing.
- Services to adult crime victims.
Partners
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin's Emergency Department and Trauma Center is staffed by physicians from the Medical College of Wisconsin's Department of Pediatrics Physicians and staff provide comprehensive treatment to more than 300 adolescents annually for injuries caused by interpersonal violence. Behavioral Health and social work staff coordinate family and youth psychosocial screenings and services.
The Medical College of Wisconsin provides leadership and expertise in outcome and process evaluation of the project by conducting extensive research projects to determine the project's impact on its clients.
Children's Service Society of Wisconsin provides expertise on the social welfare of children through counseling services, foster care, adoption and prevention resources and programs. Children's Service Society also provides strategic direction for Project Ujima.
Contact information
Project Ujima
(414) 266-2557
Useful Links
National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs
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