Description
Crisis Assistance, Response & Engagement for Survivors (CARES) provides crisis response and service connections for those who have lost loved ones to homicide. CARES, which began providing services in 2019, is housed in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) and funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). What makes CARES uniquely effective is that all of their staff have lived experience – they know what it’s like to lose someone to homicide. The first document — available in PDF and as a slideshow — provides highlights of CARES, while the second document offers a more detailed process evaluation that will help improve the program and can serve as a roadmap for other jurisdictions to adopt the CARES model. This PCCD-funded process evaluation was conducted between 2019 and 2021 by researchers in the Temple University Department of Criminal Justice with assistance from faculty at Drexel University. A journal article co-written by CARES staff and Temple researchers is currently under production and will be posted when available.