Session: The Evaluation of Comprehensive Violence Prevention in High-Risk Communities: Results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Violence Prevention Centers (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)

The goal of this symposium session is to present a series of papers which provide evaluation results stemming from several National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention or YVPCs funded by CDC from 2010-2015. Over the course of a decade of funding, the objectives of the YVPC Program have progressed towards increased emphasis on impact and integration. With this new emphasis, YVPCs were asked to partner with high-risk communities to implement and evaluate comprehensive strategies to prevent violence. The symposium assembles researchers from the University of Chicago YVPC, University of Michigan YVPC and the Virginia Commonwealth University YVPC to share evaluation results from the comprehensive strategies and programs they implemented in their communities.

The first paper in this symposium, “Evaluation of a comprehensive and coordinated program to reduce community-level violence,” reports on the results of the Chicago Youth Violence Prevention Center’s multi-component efforts in the Humboldt Park community in Chicago. Researchers found that after five years of implementation of several programs in the community (e.g., CeaseFire, SAFEChildren, and GREAT Families) their efforts decreased homicides as compared to a control community and across the city.

The second paper in this symposium, “Sustainability of Effects: The Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center intervention effects two year later,” describes the multi-faceted intervention approach of the Michigan YVPC. The approach included six evidence-based programs that were implemented in a Flint, MI community. Specifically, the Michigan YVPC worked with partners to implement Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES), Fathers and Sons, Project SYNC – an Emergency Department Brief Intervention, Clean and Green, Targeted Outreach Mentoring, and community policing mobilization. Results at 30-months post-intervention indicated that youth victimization and assault injuries fell in the intervention area subsequent to the initiation of the interventions and that these reductions were sustained over time. New data showing sustained effects at 54 months post-intervention will be presented.

The third and final paper in this symposium, “Evaluation of a multi-component school-level and family-based youth violence prevention program in high risk communities,” presents the results of a comprehensive violence prevention strategy that included Olweus Bully Prevention Program in schools and selective family interventions for high-risk youth in Richmond, VA. Using a multiple baseline design, the Virginia Commonwealth University YVPC demonstrated that teacher rated frequency of aggression (e.g., physical, nonphysical, and relational) decreased following implementation of the interventions.