Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction

Many localities fly blind, trying to stop violence without understanding where, and among whom, it concentrates. Problem analyses are a critical first but overlooked step for saving lives. The Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction put together a symposium, white paper, and webinar on the topic. https://lnkd.in/e68cMm9v

Want to know how the VRC works with jurisdictions like Knoxville, Boston, and the St. Louis region? Read this article by Thomas Abt and Grace Magori in Translational Criminology. https://lnkd.in/gKBnMusY

Thank you to everyone who came to our panel last week at ASC. Thanks also to our presenters Ericka Adams, Catherine Kimbrell, and Friedrich Loesel. Great attendance and great questions. More to come on these important studies soon!

The Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction works with City of St. Louis which is seeking a Commissioner of the Office of Violence Prevention. Check out the job description and apply today! https://lnkd.in/eiNBArs9

What does healing look like on the front lines of violence interruption work? It was an honor to be in community with a room full of practitioners answering this question and exploring how cognitive behavioral interventions can have a role in the journey toward healing for clients and workers. A few key messages that came through: 1.) The work cannot be done without the extraordinary people and the relationships they have and hold in violence interruption work. 2.) Trust is earned through authenticity, relentless contact and the ability to leave your ego at the door and be real. 3.) This work takes years and we must shift the paradigm on how we invest and sustain the healing work of preventing gun violence. Special thanks to Thomas Abt and his terrific team at the Violence Reduction Center for creating such an important space. It was a joy to meet so many practitioners leading this work and reconnect with some really special people like James(JT) Timpson, Jennifer Clammer and my colleagues Michael-Sean Spence, Esq. and Cherrell Green, PhD.

Check this article out from VRC Director Thomas Abt and co-authors!

?? Exciting Announcement: Launch of Our Partnership-Based Management Practice Brief! Over the last three years, California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC) has worked with over 50 experts, including frontline practitioners, public officials, scholars, and advocates, to develop new ways to understand how cities can sustainably reduce community violence.?This ongoing inquiry produced the key city capacity framework that you can find by visiting https://lnkd.in/gZCjgEw8. One of the most important components of the framework – as identified by the people who have led and evaluated violence reduction efforts in various U.S. cities – is effective operational management. Effective management is what turns resources into results.?All major violence reduction models face serious implementation challenges and their impact varies widely across communities and over time.?Without a robust management approach, it is almost impossible to effectively implement successful violence reduction strategies. Over the last decade, we and our partners at The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) and Crime and Justice Policy Lab have worked with a number of cities in the U.S. and Mexico to develop, test, and refine a management approach that helps government and community partners work together effectively, reduce violence at the city-level and links together the efforts of various government agencies and community intervention organizations. This brief is intended for city officials, OVP Directors, CVI practitioners, police executives, community stakeholders and anyone who is wrestling with how to help their city make progress on community violence in the near-term and at the city-level.

Last week the VRC released a white paper and held a webinar exploring an important but overlooked anti-violence tool: community violence problem analysis (CVPA). The Council on Criminal Justice's Violent Crime Working Group talked about the importance of beginning any anti-violence effort with analysis. https://lnkd.in/eqYyWDX4 Ultimately the group included CVPA in their "ten essential actions" to reduce violent crime. https://lnkd.in/e-tawn2t Powerfully, the U.S. Department of Justice has adopted CCJ's actions - including CVPA - and included them in their Violent Crime Roadmap. https://lnkd.in/g2DX_QRm This excellent white paper from the California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC) and the Crime and Justice Policy Lab talks about their importance as well. https://lnkd.in/dRKZDSj6 The VRC has done a deep dive on this topic, convening a meeting of national experts, publishing a white paper, and holding a webinar. Check it all out on our website now! https://lnkd.in/ebKC6vUQ

Yesterday at University of Maryland, we brought together leading academics, on-the-ground practitioners, key government officials and interested funders to discuss the power and promise of cognitive behavioral interventions (CBIs) to stop violence and save lives. At the Symposium on CBIs for Violence Prevention, participants surveyed the scientific evidence, discussed the details of implementation, explored the intersection of CBIs and trauma-informed practice, and brainstormed ideas for building capacity to scale these strategies further. A white paper summarizing the symposium findings will be available soon. Thank you to everyone who made this convening possible, including but not limited to Everytown for Gun Safety, Roca, Inc., Chicago CRED, Heartland Alliance, Peace For DC, The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES), Youth Advocate Programs, Inc., Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, COMPASS Youth Collaborative, Gregory Jackson Jr., Michael-Sean Spence, Esq., Kyle Fischer, A.J. Watson, Darryll Pines, Susan Rivera, Judith S. Beck, PhD, James(JT) Timpson and many more! For more on VRC convenings and to see our recently-released white paper on community violence problem analysis, visit here: https://lnkd.in/ebKC6vUQ

Happy Reframe Friday! This week The HUB team has the opportunity to attend the VRC Webinar on Community Violence Problem Analysis, learning from violence reduction scholars in the US! We know that violence is concentrated and clustered, often perpetrated by a handful of individuals, centered around few locations, thanks to the research of Thomas Abt. This White Paper expanded on best efforts to deliver anti violence practices in communities. Some take aways for our team following: - acknowledging that the first step to reducing violence within the confines of a violence intervention model is to identify those people, places and behaviours that are most likely to be attached to violence. - There are 3 key elements to Community Violence Problem Analysis: 1. Incident Based Analysis 2. People Based Analysis 3. Place Based Analysis - the concept of dosing services appropriately based on an accurate definition of what "high risk" individuals means recognizing the need for BOTH prevention and intervention based services. "My big concern is that the practitioners get left behind in these types of efforts. We forget about the community and the role that they have to play. They have to be able to absorb this or none of this stuff works" - Aqueela Sherrills, CBPSC Click the link to read the paper, consider how these efforts can continue to be created in the Canadian context! #bedifferent https://vrc.umd.edu/