Citation

Jones GJ, Jackson T, Ahmed H, Brown Q, Dantzler T, Ford N, Lawrence S, Neely TV, Olivas B, Palencia A, Pinder J, Pinder N, Raggs A, Ray C, Robinson Q, Rousseau A, Sims J, Stowe R, Teeples WT, Thomas E, Williams T, Mercado MC. Am. J. Public Health 2021; 111(Suppl 1): S17-S19.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2021.306207

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Violence is a leading cause of death for youths aged 10 to 24 years in the United States.1 Consequently, violence among youths presents urgent challenges for communities. To address these, it can help to interrogate researchers' understanding of interpersonal violence and how it influences the levers of change we identify when developing community-level violence-prevention strategies. In practice, this requires a shift in focus, from the individual behaviors traditionally recognized as violence to the social and structural determinants underlying interpersonal violence.2,3 Youth voices critically inform this process. In addition to assessing the youth perspective, it is vital to meaningfully engage youths in violence prevention and evaluate such efforts.

For 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Youth Violence Prevention Centers (YVPCs; https://bit.ly/36WRDgU) have engaged in academic-community collaborations for youth violence prevention. Currently focused on community-level strategies, these efforts have benefitted from youths who are from communities affected by violence. As they work alongside researchers as well as community, government and business leaders, YVPC-engaged youths provide expertise derived from their lived experience and other skillsets to develop violence-prevention strategies. They have been instrumental in shifting narratives about violence, leading equitable youth engagement, and influencing power entities to protect and uplift their communities.

This editorial is coauthored by YVPC-engaged youths (aged 14-26 years) alongside academic and CDC researchers. Citations are included only for readers' reference, as YVPC-engaged youth perspectives are the main feature. From this point onward, YVPC-engaged youth coauthors speak to us in the first person...

Language: en