Building the capacity and readiness of organizations and communities to implement youth violence prevention strategies

Background/Purpose:

The American Institutes for Research (AIR), with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is providing training and technical assistance (TTA) to 12 local health departments (LHDs) to enhance organizational infrastructure and build community capacity to support increased implementation of effective youth violence prevention (YVP) strategies, while increasing recognition of youth violence as a public health concern. This presentation will describe AIR’s approach to delivering TTA, which begins with an assessment of capacity and readiness to implement effective youth violence prevention strategies.

Methods:

AIR’s approach to TTA facilitates change within the organization, workforce, and broader community to increase capacity to support implementation of effective prevention policies and practices. AIR will describe a multi-stage process whereby AIR conducted an environmental scan, conducted interviews with LHDs engaged in YVP, and conducted organizational and community capacity/readiness assessments with LHDs selected to participate in the YVP TTA Initiative. 

Results/Outcomes:

Presenters will describe key findings and will explain how those findings informed AIR’s approach TTA for LHDs. In addition, plans for ongoing quality assurance and quality improvement processes to maintain motivation and enhance capacity will be noted.

Conclusions:

This session will focus on assessing and enhancing capacity and readiness to ensure successful implementation of evidence-based interventions to prevent youth violence.