Strengthening data collection based on one year of a street-level violence prevention and intervention program in Hartford, Connecticut

Background:

Peacebuilders is an initiative to place violence intervention and prevention workers on the street in five Hartford neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by violent incidents.

Objective:

To analyze one-year of data for the purposes of quality improvement with regard to data collection.

Results:

Of the clients tracked (n=312), 61% were male, 46% were Black/African-American, 48% were 17 to 20 years of age and 52% were 13 to 16 years of age. 83% reported not graduating from high school. Of those volunteering information, 48% self-reported past court involvement (n=200). Clients came primarily from six neighborhoods, Barry Square 20%, Northeast 13%, Frog Hollow 13%, South End 12%, Blue Hills 8%, and Upper Albany 7%.

Of all contacts (n=1938) 1,913 contacts were characterized as outreach and engagement with the remaining 25 contacts as mediation events. Each client's contact history was reviewed for detection of a positive, neutral, or negative change. Year one data lacked enough detail to make these determinations.

Conclusion:

The program has been effective in reaching out to youth in targeted neighborhoods in Hartford and has proven its ability to track contacts and individuals. The vast majority of contacts are categorized in one catch all category that does not give an indication as to the status of the individual. In year 2 the data collection plan has been improved to include monthly progress reports on each contact and creation of a data record for each mediation whether it involves a client or non client.