Ripple effect Milwaukee: Lessons in violence reduction based CBPR

The Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, the Medical College of Wisconsin Violence Prevention Initiative, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee partnered for a multiyear community based participatory research project to reduce youth violence. Using a modified version of the Marquette University Peace Works curriculum, a year-long, one hour per week intervention developed by operationalizing UNICEF's definition of peace education, the program aims to increase the protective factors available to young people to prevent violence and increase feelings of school connectedness. Peace Works is grounded in the belief that where youth live impacts their health and exposure to harm. Project leaders purposefully recruited youth from neighborhoods where there was demonstrated increased risk and potential exposure to violence. To date, there have been 417 youth participates in the Peace Works programing. Data collection has focused on three primary areas: measuring young people's protective and risk factors pre, mid, post intervention; insights into what leads to successful cross-disciplinary, cross institutional collaboration between universities and community partners; and reduction of violent incidents.

This presentation will explore lessons learned from placing a community partner as the leader in implementing a university-designed intervention, and incorporating another university as a partner in evaluation. Specifically, lead community and academic partners will discuss lessons learned from incorporating the UNICEF attributes of effective peace education and the challenges of obtaining consent in CBPR project.