John P. Galvin, MS¹, Cody D. Stephens, MA², Tim Metzger, MUPP², Elena D. Quintana, PhD³, Stephanie Barrett Shapiro, MPH⁴, and Gary Slutkin, MD². (1) College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, 835 S. Wolcott, E-804, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-654-8592, jgalvi1@uic.edu, (2) University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, Chicago Project for Violence Prevention/CeaseFire, 1603 W. Taylor, Chicago, IL 60612, (3) University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, Chicago Project for Violence Prevention, 1603 W. Taylor (M/C 923), Chicago, IL 60612, (4) Epi Bio, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street, M/C 923, Rm. 1021, Chicago, IL 60612

In 2003, Chicago regained the top spot for greatest number of homicides in the country. The high homicide rate is most prevalent among older teens and young adults. The exposure to violent crimes that these young adults receive is a strong predictor of subsequent aggressive behavior and is associated with more serious violent behavior in later years. Therefore, preventing an early exposure to violence is an important means to reducing violent behavior in early adulthood. However, no intervention is effective without an ability to accurately assess, and frequently monitor levels of violence exposure in urban communities. This task has been difficult to achieve in a clear and convincing format. Our use of geographical information system (GIS) technology has proven to meet this challenge. Our community based violence prevention program -- Chicago Project for Violence Prevention (CPVP) -- targets high-risk communities in the city of Chicago. One of the aims of CPVP is to evaluate violence exposure and to determine if our intervention reduces the levels and/or exposure to violence in high risk communities. We have used GIS to analyze and transform large sets of criminal data into simple maps that illustrate accurate exposure levels. GIS also offers us the ability to track our level of intervention and to determine which areas need more intervention. Therefore,GIS allows us to see where we are in the community; where we need to be and if our intervention is working.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Articulate how GIS can be applied to a community-based violence prevention program.
• Describe how public education interventions can be measurable using GIS methods.
• Recognize how GIS can be more helpful and efficient than current survey methods.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Injury Prevention

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.