Innovative Strategies to Prevent Violence through Public Health: Examples from U.S. Cities

Increasingly, cities around the country are implementing innovative, comprehensive efforts to prevent violence. Many of these are in alignment with an emerging urban framework for violence prevention. Given the growing recognition that we cannot arrest our way out of this issue and the critical role of public health, this session will explore the implications for health administrators and leaders in transcending the traditional borders of a criminal justice approach. In particular, successful violence prevention efforts of various cities around the U.S. will be highlighted, including community engagement, federal partnerships, creative fundraising and resource allocation, and data-informed program and policy development. Examples will focus on implications for innovative leadership and management strategies within public health to strengthen violence prevention efforts.

Examples will be shared and their strengths highlighted against an emerging model of violence prevention in cities, called the UNITY RoadMap. UNITY developed the RoadMap in response to a city assessment that evaluated a sampling of cities for comprehensive, data-driven efforts to prevent or reduce youth violence. It has since been refined by representatives from cities around the country.

UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth through Violence Prevention) is a national initiative sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The California Wellness Foundation. UNITY was designed to support cities in their violence prevention efforts that expand the borders of a law enforcement approach to move toward an effective public health approach which spans multiple stakeholders and offers broader and sustainable solutions.