RAPID CITY, SD (KOTA) – The Rapid City City Council has approved a two-year contract between the Children’s Home Society and the Rapid City Police Department to support case management services.

The RCPD’s Community Engagement Division is made up of seven people, both police and non-police. When a young person has a traumatic experience, police can turn to the Community Engagement Team for support.

Jamie Kirsch, RCPD’s Community Violence Interruption program manager, said adding the partnership with Children’s Home Society to the team will allow the department to help sooner.

“Law enforcement is often tasked with managing the crisis but does not always have the ability to provide the stabilization that families need. Having a Children’s Home Society case manager to support those needs will be a great asset to us,” Kirsch said.

The Children’s Home Society has worked with police for many years, providing support with forensic interviews, family crisis management and training resources. Tifanie Petro, Children’s Home Society’s director of child and family services, said there is a lot of need in the community and both teams are needed to meet it.

“We partner with the Rapid City Police Department to get family referrals and get faster access to families through that collaboration. This now gives us the new opportunity to be a reverse co-location and incorporate one of our case managers into the community outreach team, which is a completely new endeavor for us,” Petro said.

The contract is funded by a grant from the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative through the Bureau of Justice Assistance office, secured in 2022 and will be re-evaluated after the two-year period.

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