Kansas City
PI is working with the Kansas City Missouri Health Department and the Violence Free Kansas City Committee (VFKCC) to develop a Youth and Family Violence Prevention Master Plan for the city. The VFKCC is a city-wide multi‐sectoral collaboration of public and private entities with the mission to ensure that violence prevention and deterrence efforts are coordinated and rooted in the public health and community resilience approaches. The VFKCC was formed by the Kansas City Health Commission in February 2014, at the direction of Mayor Sylvester “Sly” James to implement coordinated strategies that prevent and deter violence.
The goal of the Master Plan is to reduce incidence of violence affecting youth and families. Using a community resilience approach to violence, the plan will emphasize prevention through investing in upstream factors in the community environment, while also including strategies to address the short-and long-term impacts of violence. In order to promote greater health equity in Kansas City, the plan will identify and address historical and present-day factors that produce inequities associated with violence, especially through linking the plan to related initiatives. The planning process will result in: a greater shared understanding of a community resilience approach to violence prevention; a plan that draws on community assets and best practices; and an increased readiness for collaborative action among multiple sectors and constituents.
The Master Plan builds on work done by the VFKCC and PI in 2015, where a Collaboration Multiplier analysis was conducted with the goals of better understanding what each partner brings to the table and identifying joint strategies that committee members could take on. Through the Collaboration Multiplier analysis, the VFKCC identified common language, overarching goals, prioritized risk and resilience factors related to violence, gaps in service, and shared indicators/strategies.
For media coverage of the planning process and Blueprint, take a look at these stories from KSHB News, KCUR 89.3 and FOX4.
Funding for the planning process is provided by the American Public Health Association’s Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge.