Community based organizations in Cleveland are taking a public health approach to violence prevention. Dubbed “Impact 25” the new plan aims to reduce violence among youth between the ages of 15 and 25 by 10 percent in three years.
As reported in The Plain Dealer:
The Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance recently announced one of the programs taking a public-health approach to violence. The group will soon embed a “violence interrupter” in the Emergency Room at MetroHealth Medical Center.
The interrupter will meet with victims of violent crime and their families when they come into the E.R. with a gunshot or other injury. The interrupter will calm the victim, direct him and his family to social services, and – most crucially – talk him out of taking revenge.
“If you’ve been hurt you want to hurt the person who did it,” Walker said. “That sounds horrible but it’s true. You’re angry and you were wronged, and you want to do something about it.”
Violence Interruption programs, successful in other cities, aim to stop the seemingly endless cycle of violence –a cycle of attack and retaliation often associated with gangs.
For more information read the full article in The Plain Dealer.
The ways in which communities in Maryland are tackling at risk youth from a public health perspective will be discussed at the 2016 MACo Winter Conference session “The Power and Perils of Public Health“. The session will be held Thursday, December 8, 2016 from 9:00 am – 10:15 am at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort in Cambridge, Maryland.
Learn more about MACo’s Winter Conference: