Essential Elements for Community Engagement in Evidence‐Based Youth Violence Prevention

Abstract

In the field of youth violence prevention, there has been increasing emphasis on "evidence based" programs and principles shown through scientific research as reaching their intended outcomes. Community mobilization and engagement play a critical role in many evidence-based programs and strategies, as it takes a concerted effort among a wide range of people within a community to alter behavior and maintain behavioral change. How do concerned individuals and groups within a community engage others within and outside of that community to effectively plan, develop and implement appropriate EB programs as well as evaluate the outcomes and impacts of locally developed programs yet to be proven? The authors discuss five elements essential for community engagement in evidence-based youth violence prevention based on their work in a university-community partnership through the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center (API Center), a National Academic Center for Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention Center supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include: (a) aligning EBPs with a community's shared vision and values; (b) establishing an inclusive environment for the planning, implementation and evaluation of EBPs; (c) nurturing collaboration for increased effectiveness and efficacy of EBPs; (d) building adequate leadership and community capacity to develop and sustain EBPs; and (e) building a learning community for evaluation and self-reflection. The authors propose placing greater emphasis on "evaluative thinking" and organizational capacity for evaluation as we pursue evidence-based practices for youth violence prevention. This is especially important for ethnic groups for which an evidence base is not well established.

Street Smarts ↔ Book Smarts

“…Campus-community partnerships require a long-term vision, with sustainable commitments among partners (Carney et al, 2011;Klein et al, 2011;Miao et al, 2011). As in this initiative, student engagement is often short-term, limited to a course or single semester; this has raised concerns about issues of continuity and sustainability (Dunlap et al, 2011;Gazley et al, 2012;Sorensen & Lawson, 2011).…”

“…Formalized structures for the partnership itself should be based on a shared vision with co-created objectives (Miao et al, 2011). The course has been continued because this study and partnerships have been sustained in each of the three communities.…”

Civic Engagement Among Youth Exposed to Community Violence: Directions for Research and Practice

“…The Truth N' Trauma project, also in Chicago, worked with high school students, using a restorative and trauma-based approach to support students doing either action research or a less civically engaged activity (Harden et al, 2015). Community organizers who engage youth and promote youth leadership can leverage youth organizing's growing popularity (Christens & Kirshner, 2011) as an evidence-based practice for violence prevention (Miao, Umemoto, Gonda, & Hishinuma, 2011).…”

El papel de los facilitadores en la implementación de los “Espacios para Crecer”: evaluación formativa del programa con menores trabajadores “Edúcame Primero, Colombia”

“…El tipo y la profundidad de esta implicación dependen de las características y las condiciones de la propia comunidad y también de las condiciones de planificación e implementación de los programas (Miao, Umemoto, Gonda, & Hishinuma, 2011). Por ejemplo, para Foster-Fishman, Cantillon, Pierce y Van Egeren 2007, la existencia y la intensidad de la implicación activa de la comunidad no depende tanto de variables sociodemográficas de la población como, en general, de factores relacionados con la percepción de la capacidad y la preparación comunitaria para el cambio (Edwards, Jumper-Thurman, Plested, Oetting, & Swanson, 2000), entre otros aspectos.…”