Growing Resilience in Teens (GRIT)

The Center for Violence Prevention is proud to be part of CHOP’s Healthier Together initiative, which aims to address social determinants of health as a path to improving the health of children. Healthier Together’s Growing Resilience in Teens (GRIT) program works toward this goal by proactively screening, assessing, intervening, and referring youth to supportive community programs and interventions that mitigate the effects of trauma.

How GRIT Provides Youth Trauma Support

GRIT is a set of services to proactively address trauma for 8- to- 17-year-olds who are patients at two CHOP Primary Care Center locations in Philadelphia – Cobbs Creek and Karabots Pediatric Care Center. At these two locations, providers briefly screen children and families to identify recent trauma, loss, and/or concrete needs. Upon identification of a potentially traumatic event or experience or a recent loss, children and families can receive a direct referral to an appropriate group-based services and/or a comprehensive trauma-informed mental health assessment.

GRIT Assessment

Through the GRIT assessment, youth are assessed for trauma exposure, post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, and anxiety, as well as suicidality. Following the GRIT assessment, youth and families are connected with appropriate support and services to address their needs and help foster resilience and healing. This service is family-focused and needs are identified by each youth and family, allowing for individualized, tailored care and support. Our team partners with families to explore the best way to meet their needs in a culturally appropriate and meaningful way. In addition to partnership with families, there is strong communication between the GRIT team, primary care providers and social workers to ensure an integrated, coordinated plan for each family.

GRIT Program Services

GRIT services are offered at no cost to families and there is no insurance requirement. The goal of GRIT is to prevent onset of mental health conditions by building resilience and growing protective factors. These services include:

• Uplift Center for Grieving Children - Provides peer-support groups to youth and caregivers grieving a death or type of ambiguous loss.
• Family Advocacy and Support Program (FAS) at CVP - community-based (home, school, and community settings) case management support to youth and families to help them navigate complex, complicated systems of care in Philadelphia, address concrete needs, and help children and families recover after exposure to trauma or violence. Social workers provide family-led, voluntary case management services to families for three to six months and partner with families to work toward mutually identified goals.
  
  FAS works to support families on the following need domains: Medical, Mental Health, Education, Employment, Extracurricular activities, Basic/Concrete needs, Identification, Legal, Group support, Safety, Insurance, and Public Benefits.

GRIT Program in Action

In the program’s first 15 months, from January 2021 - March 2022, 96 GRIT Assessments were completed with patients referred from CHOP Primary Care. Of these, 67 youth were enrolled in FAS intensive case management.

Next steps for the program include plans to hire an additional Community Based Social Worker to support FAS as well as to gather client feedback through a Client Satisfaction Questionnaire.

With funding support from