About Us

Keystone Crisis Intervention Team (KCIT) supports crime victims in communities throughout Pennsylvania in their recovery from a traumatic event through group crisis intervention.

The program is funded by a grant through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

After first responders leave the scene of a crime, a community is often left to fend for itself after witnessing or experiencing an incident. The experience of those impacted does not magically disappear and can cause lingering trauma. KCIT is a community’s second line of assistance and provides professionally trained teams of individuals to serve any community within the Commonwealth where a crime has taken place.

Since its first deployment in 2000, KCIT has provided crisis interventions to thousands of individuals from counties all over the state of Pennsylvania. Types of crimes that KCIT teams have responded to include domestic violence homicides, school shootings, workplace shootings, bank robberies, arson, terrorism and any other criminal incidents where there have been multiple victims or witnesses.

Vision

Crime victims throughout the Commonwealth will have access to responsive, compassionate, inclusive, community focused support by trauma-informed KCIT volunteers.

Mission

KCIT provides support and promotes resilience for communities impacted by crime throughout Pennsylvania.

Values

KCIT is rooted in the following values, which guide our decision-making, interactions, and services at all levels: Compassionate, Inclusive, Community-Focused, Empowerment, Trauma-Informed, Resilience, Relationships

Equity Statement

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” -Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s quote encapsulates the Keystone Crisis Intervention Team’s (KCIT’s) beliefs and guides our practice as we apply a racial equity lens to all that we do. This lens is intersectional and inclusive of racial, gender, economic, and social disparities.

KCIT is fully committed to being an anti-racist program and promoting racial equity, safety, and transparency for all our volunteers and communities we serve. We have revisited the program’s core mission, vision, and values to ensure that our foundation promotes inclusivity and racial equity. We have made a commitment to expand our own personal learning, exploring our own biases and creating growth opportunities for all our trained volunteers. KCIT is committed to ensuring all active volunteers participate in trainings and provide opportunities for reflection.

We understand and support the urgent need to heighten our own and our volunteer community’s consciousness of institutional and systemic racism and the impact it has towards achieving racial equity.

Part of KCIT’s procedure is to assess the intersectionality that impacts a particular community so that we may best serve them. We acknowledge and are working towards deepening our understanding of how systemic and institutional practices and policies have over time impacted the way crime shows up in marginalized communities, and how those communities do not receive timely and adequate support and resources in the aftermath of continued violence.

As the KCIT community strives towards a more equitable and just program to serve crime victims, we remain humble and receptive to ideas, suggestions, and perspectives so that as we know better we can do better.

Keystone Crisis Intervention Team and Advisory Committee (July 2023)

Our History

1996

PCCD’s Victim Services Advisory Committee identified the need for community crisis response services on a local and state level

1997

Crisis Response Organizational Subcommittee (CROS) was established

1998

State-wide service needs assessment was conducted amongst leading Victim Services professionals and other crisis professionals

1999

CROS became advisory board for the newly created Keystone Crisis Intervention Team (KCIT)

2000

KCIT conducted its first deployment

2001

KCIT was one of the main responders for the 9/11 tragedy in Pennsylvania