San Mateo – “This conversation is confidential. Do you have a moment to talk?”
That’s Laura Syracuse on the phone with a survivor of domestic violence. A survivor with children, specifically.
Syracuse is with CORA – Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse. She is on the front lines of a building effort to break a stark and painful pattern: children who witness domestic abuse or the chaotic aftermath are at greater risk of being violent or victimized in their future relationships.
“What happens in childhood has a lasting impact,” Syracuse said. “If we can help a child with their confusion and anger and trauma, we can help that child in the way they respond to difficult situations for decades to come. We’re working to break a cycle of abuse.”
Trying to repair damage left by family violence is the focus of SPARK – Shaping Positive and Resilient Kids. SPARK works like this:
Law enforcement officers throughout San Mateo County provide CORA with contact information for families where domestic violence is suspected. Client advocates from CORA then contact families with an offer of mental health and other critical interventions for parents, guardians and children at no cost.
“By systematically identifying children and families who are at risk, and providing a safe environment where they can address their mental health needs, we are breaking cycles of abuse,” said Maria Andreina Bastardo, manager of Mental Health Services at CORA.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long confirmed that the more traumatic events a person suffers in childhood — known as adverse childhood experiences – the more likely that person would suffer from chronic stress-related health problems.
The connection goes beyond health concerns. A study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that children growing up with a battered parent are more likely to become victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse later in life. The U.S. Department of Justice cites statistics that show nearly 1 in 10 American children saw one family member assault another family member, and more than 25 percent had been exposed to family violence during their lifetime.
Mike Callagy witnessed a pattern as a police officer in San Mateo for 30 years.
“I saw us respond to the same homes for domestic violence calls over and over., “You could see the toll it took on the kids — the fear, the trauma, the normalization of violence.”
Now the County of San Mateo’s chief executive, Callagy was a driving force in creating SPARK in 2023. “We needed to do something different, something preventive," he said. "That’s what SPARK is about.”
With law enforcement agencies in San Mateo County receiving about 2,000 calls a year related to domestic violence, Elisa Kuhl, Director of Victim Services for the County of San Mateo’s District Attorney’s Office, thinks SPARK is crucial to breaking generational cycles of abuse. The District Attorney’s Office facilitates SPARK while partnering with law enforcement and CORA.
“It’s one thing to offer services but another to encourage a survivor likely coping with a cascade of obstacles into receiving mental health support,” Kuhl said.
That’s where persistence – and caring – can pay off.
Syracuse routinely calls survivors multiple times to guide them into services.
“We have a way of disconnecting the call so it’s not curious to the people who may be in the room listening,” she said. “There’s a lot of safety measures that we take. That’s a real concern.”
Counselors focus on each survivor’s and child’s specific situation. That may include safety planning and deep and sensitive discussions in the aftermath of a child seeing one parent taken away in an ambulance or taken away in handcuffs
“That’s still your parent,” CORA’s Bastardo said. “We help children integrate their parent’s positive qualities and also the negative behaviors that they did. How do you integrate those two in a way that makes sense for the child?
“That’s the deep core work we do with children at CORA.”
Early results are promising:
- In the last quarter of 2024, the program saw a 62 percent increase in the number of children receiving mental health services during the same period prior to the implementation of SPARK.
- Of the children who have started and completed clinical services at CORA during calendar year 2024, trauma symptoms as measured by validated measurement tools decreased by 78 percent.
- A majority of SPARK eligible households have children aged 0-5 (53%)
- A total of 241 adult survivors have received intensive case management from the Victim Services Division in the District Attorney’s Office.
The budget for SPARK is allocated from the local Measure K half-cent sales tax.
Effie Milionis Verducci
Interim Director of Strategic Communications
everducci@smcgov.org