Oral

Youth violence is a major public health problem. The scope of this issue is extensive and can refer to an array of violent acts such as bullying, slapping or hitting, causing both physical and emotional harm. Others, such as robbery, assault, rape, homicide and suicide can lead to serious injury or even death. These acts perpetrated both by and against young people, results in considerable physical, emotional, social, and economic consequences. Notably, these harmful behaviors can start early and continue into adulthood, thus prevention is paramount. This session will explore various approaches to youth violence prevention including strategies outlined by CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control as well as CeaseFire Chicago. Both CDC and CeaseFire employ a public health approach to youth violence prevention. CeaseFire will demonstrate how they recognize violence as a learned behavior that can be prevented using disease control methods like identification and detection Interruption, intervention, and risk reduction. CDC will identify how they approach youth violence prevention by defining and monitoring the problem, identifying risk and protective factors, developing and testing prevention strategies, and ensuring widespread adoption. They will also highlight other evidence based community centered solutions to prevent youth violence. An excerpt from the documentary “The Interrupters” will also be shown to provide a glimpse of the daily journey of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they were once involved in.

Session Objectives: Discuss youth violence as a public health issue Describe community based solutions to prevent youth violence List evidence based solutions for violence prevention

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)