Strengthening Public Health Practice to Prevent Violence and Improve Safety
For the past few years, Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) members have wanted to improve the way they measure and monitor violence so that they can implement strategies that prevent it from happening in the first place, Gun violence in particular–in its multiple forms–is a major concern. But BCHC health departments have received so little investment to focus on violence that they haven't been able to address the full scope of the issue.
Cities have long relied on the criminal justice system's methods of measuring violence-homicide rates, crime reports, etc. But these metrics don't illustrate the full extent of community violence, nor do they take into account positive conditions that can reduce violence in communities. BCHC Members recognize that the practice and research-base for a public health approach to violence prevention has evolved and spread significantly in the last 15+ years, and to help shape their work on evaluation in this direction, BCHC partnered with Prevention Institute.
BCHC member health departments serve nearly 62 million people, presenting an enormous opportunity to find common ground and combine local efforts for greater shared impact. While BCHC members have different contexts, strengths, and challenges, there is great need and opportunity for BCHC members to work together and learn from each other and strengthen their local data collection, monitoring, and evaluation practice.
Long-term intended outcomes
- Increase capacity to monitor violence and evaluate violence prevention, with enhanced focus on resilience, equity, and population-level impact; and
- Increase capacity to harness monitoring and evaluation efforts to inform program, policy, and budget decisions within and across member departments and jurisdictions.
