Violence Prevention CohortCall #1

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

ATTENDEES:Springfield (Sarah Page, Anna Cruz, Sarah Goddard – HAPHousing; Jessica Collins – Partners for a Healthier Community)Liberty City (Christine Horn – Florida Institute for Health Innovation)Colorado Springs (Kelly Vivian – El Paso County Public Health)Denver (Maritza Valenzuela – Denver Public Health)Portland (Regina Ingabire and Liz Baxter – Oregon Public Health Institute)South Los Angeles (Alba Pena – National Health Foundation)

Baltimore (Rachel Donegan – University of Maryland)Seattle (Valerie Tran – Interim CDA)

Staff:Courtney Bartlett – BUILD TA Coordinator (Duke/PPB)Kenisha Bethea – PL (Duke/PPB)Raquel Bournhonesque – PL (County Health Rankings & Roadmaps)Laura Trent (Spark Policy)Katie Miller – PL (Prevention Institute)Victoria Nichols (Prevention Institute)Jamecca Marshall (Prevention Institute)

Purpose: To convene sites who may address violence in their implementation plans, in order to: Learn from each other about what strategies they are implementing or considering for their

implementation plans, and Learn from subject matter experts about best practices from an upstream, community-level

perspective.

Resources: Grant opportunity: Safe and Thriving Communities: Uniting Community Based Violence

Prevention, Defending Childhood and National Forum Approaches to Prevent and Heal Violence Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention (youth violence prevention technical assistance

program) – Attachment. PI Violence Prevention one-pager – Attachment.

Site Introductions

Los Angeles, CAIn their planning process the identified three topics to address: access to healthy food, open space, and safety. Parks are currently crime hubs which keeps people from being active. They are proposing more programming in parks, including increasing the number of fitness programs to promote safety. There is a tenuous relationship between authority and police. They are interested in learning how can they be creative to address safety without increasing the presence of authority.

Portland, ORThey have held community health forums in low income neighborhoods in east Portland and identified five key issues affecting communities. Two issues (lack of unity and togetherness, and lack of employment) creates tensions which could lead to violence. Additionally, people do not have a good relationship law enforcement. They are hoping this call can give them ideas for how public programs can address violence. A year ago they held two community forums that looked at violence as a public health issue. The forums were well attended, but did not engage any community members. Oregon as a state has shifted in looking at social determinants of health and equity, but they need help with the language to advance this.

Seattle, WAThe neighborhood is mostly Asian Pacific Islander/immigrant/refugee. Their ultimate goal is developing a comprehensive neighborhood health action plan focused on 1) public safety, 2) environmental quality and cleanliness, 3) addressing social isolation, and 4) limited opportunities to be healthy in the neighborhood. Related to public safety, at the programmatic level, they just received a city parks activation grant, to test out different programming/activities at three neighborhood parks. At the policy/systems level, they are working with the Seattle police department to identify ways they can revise their cultural responsiveness curriculum. There are ways the police respond to 911 calls that are appropriate for other neighborhoods, but not the East Bay neighborhood. They are thinking about ways to sustain long-term education across cohorts of police. Also thinking about crime prevention through design - built environment is conducive to homeless activity. Seattle is interested in hearing if others are working with their police dept. or strategies for working with immigrant and refugee population.

Denver, CO The Youth Health Department of Denver Public Health is leading a violence prevention project distinct from, but in coordination with, the BUILD project. Over the last year, they've been involved in a cohort supported by CDC, receiving training and TA to conduct youth violence prevention planning in their community. They are doing city-wide strategic planning to create a comprehensive strategic plan on youth violence prevention for Denver. Data shows that cities with comprehensive strategic plans are more effective in achieving outcomes around violence. It brings a public health approach to violence prevention (which is traditionally focused around crime prevention), and a focus on cross-sector collaboration (juvenile justice, school system, police dept., public health as the convener). The target neighborhoods overlap with the BUILD work, and they are looking to link both projects.

Colorado Springs, COBefore BUILD, a coalition of individuals was already working on youth violence prevention in Colorado Springs. The BUILD grantee came together with this coalition to plan interventions in the community. A survey of residents identified the following important issues to address: food security, healthy food access issues, access to technology, public safety, better lighting, cleaner/safer parks, and need for a better relationship with police. The Southeast Spring Soccer Initiative is providing organized soccer for kids in community. In an effort to reframe the relationship with police, this initiative has engaged the police to come and play soccer with the kids in the park. They are also creating team youth development opportunities (e.g. safe places to do homework, access to Wi-Fi, access to a meal, spoken word, poetry slams). Springfield, MASpringfield (specifically the Old Hill Neighborhood) has analyzed their data and conducted community forums to identify the following issues: social isolation, lack of physical activity, need for healthier food,

and issues around housing. They're part of a safe neighborhood initiative involving local/state police, the sheriff’s department, reentry programs, 25 housing service providers, community centers, etc. The challenge is that the initiative is not well-linked with the residents living in the neighborhood. They are still deciding what the implementation plan is going to be, but are looking at supporting community organizing and linking to the public safety initiative, and to physical activity (e.g. creating walking clubs, giving stipends to residents to engage them). By linking public safety and physical activity they hope to get people are out and about, walking with police some of the time, and connecting people more in order to increase the amount of eyes on the street and identification and reporting of criminal activity in the neighborhood.

Baltimore, MDThe target audience is a neighborhood in West Baltimore (Upton/Druid Heights). Upton/Druid Heights is a Promise Neighborhood planning grantee. They have a robust community-school initiative in Baltimore and have been working on a birth to college pipeline for a few years now. They have done well on ages 0-12, but now want to focus on the 12-24 age group. The goal is to work on youth violence and get staff in middle/high schools, focusing on building relationships for kids. They hired youth organizers to work with them and help with surveying and talking with kids about what they need. Most are witnessing violence 5+ times a week and are looking for more adults to connect to. Some strategies they are looking at: providing mental health services in rec centers, creating an app (like the suicide hotline) as a way to report violence in the neighborhood, and positioning designated safe streets staff in the schools. Kids worked with local newspaper to do a video (videoed local neighborhood).

Liberty City, FLLiberty City is bringing together the community who is at a crisis state with deaths and shootings among youth. Five children were murdered from one high school in the last year. They've brought together key leaders in Miami and in Liberty City (states attorney, government and hospital leaders, and elected officials). They need to bring more residents into the fold. They are holding a community event next week and hoping to show the community that there is a safe place for them to come. One strategy is to establish safe havens for children to go to. There is no lack of programming in liberty city, but it can be a hindrance that there are too many programs. They plan to look at what is working, and where they need to do better as a community. They are working towards delivering those services using a trauma informed lens, and identifying a few services that stakeholders can get behind and build.

Discussion

For nearly two decades, Prevention Institute has provided training and technical assistance, strategy development, tools and materials, and research and evaluation for coalitions and a variety of organizations to help shift norms, build resilience, and increase the effectiveness of violence prevention efforts. PI’s aim is to address the underlying factors and systems that create and perpetuate violence in the first place. Examples of PI’s work, partnerships, and writing on the topic of violence prevention can be found in the one-pager and on our website www.preventioninstitute.org.

Rachel is interested in professionalizing of the role - once that moment is interrupted, what happens next? There need to be some referrals and deeper intervention that is happening.

How can violence interrupters programs work as primary prevention as well as secondary prevention? There are different violence prevention models in the country:

o Cease Fire model - interrupters have a particular role of interrupting that particular moment of high violence. They are the fire department and EMS, and they go in with

the suits on and are the first defenders. What's happening after that moment? How do we expand their role and document/evaluate/and connect it to other programs.

o There are also violence interrupter programs based out of hospitals. Liz Baxter – Portland has seen growth of CHWs based in community-based organizations. Is any of

the training curriculum utilizing CHWs in that interrupter role? As part of OR's Medicaid waiver, they committed to training 300 CHWs across the state. There is a CHW association, curriculum, and registry now. Focus has been on looking for go-to people in certain communities.

o The BUILD Ontario, CA site is working with CHWs – Katie will connect. Springfield is interested in learning more about Baltimore’s interrupter model as they are talking

with their police department about using that model more. They have been trying to get their city to join the National Network for Safe Communities. Are other sites using the police department to join that national network?

o Rachel says sharing information with law enforcement can be difficult. It works when done well, but police don't love it.

o Jamecca - There are benefits of local organizations tapping into these national models – she is happy to talk more.

Themes across SitesSites are interested in hearing more on the following topics:

Trainings/education on violence for different sectors (police, CHWs, health educators) (Seattle) How organizations are articulating violence prevention activities to hospital funders

and in what ways are hospitals are willing to contribute to those activates? Or what are some examples of how they are contributing? Seattle is laying out their budget needs now and looking at how the hospital can fund the budget.

(Baltimore) Interested in any training/work that involves youth themselves, whether that is curriculum, train the trainer models, etc.

(Springfield) Interested in using physical activity programs for multi-generations to get people out, take back the parks, creating linkage between physical activity and making it a safer neighborhood.

o Katie will connect Springfield and South LA as they are working on similar topics. (Florida) Interested in getting the youth involved and have them drive the work. Also interested

in trauma informed interventions. (Colorado Springs) Also interested in learning youth engagement strategies (might not message

them around violence prevention specifically). (Portland) Interesting to find information on best ways to talk about violence prevention -

messaging/framing. Each site has talked about it in a different way. (Portland) Also, interested in activities for bringing together different communities to build trust

to share resources. (Portland) - Any ideas about how to utilize CHWs in the interrupter role. (Ontario?) They’ve had

a lot of focus on professionalizing CHWs in the state.

Conclusion and next steps Sites found this call useful. Decided to meet quarterly moving forward – next meeting will be scheduled for July Send any resources/tools you have been using or found helpful related to violence prevention

and we will compile a list.