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Seeding Change: How Small Projects Can Improve Community Health and Safety

NCJ Number
241935
Author(s)
Sarah Schweig
Date Published
April 2013
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Based largely on the experiences of projects developed from "seed" money provided by The California Endowment, this publication aims to change readers' understanding of violence as not just a criminal justice issue but also a systemic social and health problem.
Abstract
The report summarizes the discussions of a roundtable convened in Washington, DC, to share some key lessons about law enforcement-public health collaborations in addressing violence. Two presentations reviewed advancements in violence prevention methods. One presentation explained how to predict gun violence by analyzing social networking and community-level prevention strategies. The second presentation explained the use of anonymous data from emergency rooms to inform crime-fighting and community level violence-prevention strategies. Following these presentations, the jurisdictions that were awarded mini-grants from The California Endowment described their pilot projects of collaboration between law enforcement and public health professionals in the development of violence-prevention strategies. The cities involved in the pilot effort are East Palo Alto, CA; Milwaukee, WI; Chicago, IL; and Los Angeles, CA. Grant-makers then provided advice on how small projects might develop and expand. Attention was given to budget limitations, the documentation of the impact of a project, collaboration, and funding interests. Roundtable participants (police, public health experts, and grant-makers) agreed that the new partnerships between public health and law enforcement were just the beginning. Participants were interested in promoting a national-level discussion about how public safety and public health agencies might cooperate in reducing violence.