Accelerated a public health approach to violence prevention through community-centered data, practice, and narrative change.

PI worked with Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) and RTI International to promote the local adoption of a public health, community- and racial equity-centered model for gun violence prevention focused on improving data and changing narratives. Together, we identified metrics relevant to community safety that effectively illustrate local health conditions and the drivers that contribute to inequities and community safety, and which take into account multiple forms of data, including contextual and experiential evidence. We also convened an Equity Metrics Workgroup of local health departments and national partners, who offered recommendations on the metrics. These insights will inform changes to the Big Cities Health Inventory data platform used by public health agencies.

Recognizing the importance of strengthening our contributions to community narrative power, PI also engaged local and national partners in shaping strategies to shift the dominant narrative of community safety from policing and punishment to public health and community-centered approaches. This includes an emphasis on community safety narratives that reinforce abundance over scarcity; collectivism and interdependence over individualism and self-reliance; and liberation and freedom over oppression and control. These efforts lay the foundation for public health practices and narratives that prioritize community-rooted solutions for safe communities.

Funders: Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education and The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation.

Image by Nye' Lyn Tho.