The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #68431

Shailushi Baxi, MPH, Rachel Davis, MSW, and Larry Cohen, MSW. Prevention Institute, 265 29th street, Oakland, CA 94611, 510-444-7738, shailushi@preventioninstitute.org

Shifting the Focus is an interagency prevention collaborative in California State government. Starting in July 2000, representatives from over 20 State agencies and departments partnered to: 1. Prioritize the prevention of violence-related injury and death through State policy and practice, and, 2. Promote collaboration on State violence prevention efforts.

A key tenet of this initiative was to build on effective and promising work. Rather than creating only new efforts, this approach focused on strengthening existing State initiatives and bringing them into alignment with one another. In many cases, the collaborative’s efforts were deliberately exerted in either a catalytic role or in support of those that already existed.

Since it’s inception, Shifting the Focus accomplishments extended to local, state, and national levels and include learning from communities, impacting State practice and policy, and building national momentum. The collaborative developed a strategy to advance prevention practices, as well as a set of Prevention Principles and other tools to standardize administrative practices in State government. Collaborative efforts between partnering agencies and departments spanned program support and community participation, training and technical assistance, and data. In addition to the value of working together to achieve prevention outcomes Shifting the Focus has yielded important lessons that will prove beneficial for collaborative prevention work at the local, State, and national levels in the future. This session will describe the significant outcomes, the lessons learned throughout the two-year process, and implications for future collaborative prevention efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Delineate the key outcomes and accomplishments of the California government coalition
• 2. Describe the lessons learned from the project and how to apply them to work in government or involvement with various collaboratives.

Keywords: Government, Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.