Citation

Kingston BE, Zimmerman MA, Wendel ML, Gorman-Smith D, Wright-Kelly E, Mattson SA, Trudeau ART. Am. J. Public Health 2021; 111(Suppl 1): S20-S24.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2021.306281

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Public health researchers recognize that determinants of youth violence exist across multiple contexts and social-ecological levels, which necessitates using a comprehensive approach to prevent youth violence (https://bit.ly/3hFqWCi). A large body of research has focused on developing and evaluating community-based interventions that address individual and family risk factors for youth violence.1 Despite the success of these interventions, youth violence remains a major public health issue. Community-level prevention strategies focus on the characteristics of settings (e.g., schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods) that increase the risk of or protect people from violence, particularly social, economic, and environmental characteristics. These strategies are distinct from community-based strategies, which are implemented in community settings but target individual, peer, or other proximal relationship or family factors.2 Community-level prevention strategies have the potential to impact a greater number of people, yet the current evidence base for youth violence prevention approaches at the outer social-ecological levels (i.e., community, societal) is thin.3

To build the evidence base for community-level strategies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention invested in five Youth Violence Prevention Centers (YVPCs) in communities disproportionately affected by youth violence (Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Richmond, VA; Louisville, KY; Flint, MI; Youngstown, OH; and Camden, NJ; https://bit.ly/2YBOYqx). YVPCs' focus since 2015 has emphasized the development, implementation, and rigorous evaluation of community-level violence prevention strategies in five areas:

Addressing social norms by changing community narratives,

Mobilizing communities for action,

Changing the built and physical environment,

Scaling evidence-based programs, and

Evaluating and informing policies at multiple levels.

In this editorial we describe lessons learned from the YVPCs that can guide future research related to developing effective community-level youth violence prevention strategies.

Language: en