University Times

The Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) is bringing city and community leaders together to help design optimal community violence prevention programs.

GSPH’s Center for Health Equity has selected Richard Garland, executive director of the anti-violence program One Vision One Life, to convene a group that will review youth and community violence prevention programs throughout the United States. The group will determine which aspects of these programs work and which don’t, as well as the situations in which they perform best.

Representatives from the mayor’s office, police department, criminal justice system and community groups will be asked to join the Center for Health Equity in the group, which will meet monthly. Initially the group will review previous studies and literature that examine youth violence prevention programs, including after-school activities and in-school anti-drug programs as well as behind-the-scenes movements that negotiate deals between rival gangs.