SYNC Safety 2.0: Continuing a National Effort to Heal, Invest in, and Celebrate Our Communities
In 2023, Prevention Institute launched Strategies for Youth and Neighborhood Centered (SYNC) Safety. SYNC is a project focused on building partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve Black and Brown communities with inequitable risk for violence, and uplifting the role of public health in building safer communities. Co-created with a team of leading organizations, networks, and practitioners focused on community and youth violence prevention, SYNC’s mission is to advance safety in Black and Brown communities.
Thirty CBOs from across the country formed SYNC’s first Learning Community, and the folks involved are excited to connect, learn, and grow with each other. During five Learning Labs—a forum to connect, co-learn, and support each other’s work—the SYNC Learning Community reinforced the public health principles and practices already present in their community safety work. We also explored healing approaches to prevent and reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths.
SYNC kicked off its second year in October of 2024, and the SYNC family committed to delve further into Learning Lab topics of the previous year, strengthen peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and reclaim ownership of how our communities interact with and heal from systemic disinvestment and violence for a safe and prosperous future.
The SYNC Safety Pharmacy
In January 2025, SYNC 2.0 held its first Learning Lab, where National Compadres Network, one of SYNC’s Core Partners, led an exercise on self-reflection. Participants explored the 'medicine' we carry—such as patience, creativity, and ancestral teachings—and the essential support we need from each other in this work.This concept, called the SYNC Safety Pharmacy, was first introduced in SYNC 1.0 and has remained a central theme. It continues to shape Learning Labs, in-person gatherings, and conversations in SYNC 2.0.
The SYNC Learning Community expressed many medicines needed to best continue and sustain their community-based work—such as courage, balance, strength, reassurance, safety, health, and compassion—however, preservation of hope rose to the top. Taking a moment to evaluate and offer our medicine to the pharmacy creates space to celebrate the joys and successes of community-rooted work in addition to priming the remainder of our time together to refocus and address the challenges facing our communities as well as the uncertainties brought forth by an ever changing political landscape.
Upcoming Learning Labs will continue to explore healing themes and practices with the guidance of National Compadres Network; for example, with a healing Círculo (circle), participants will look inward to acknowledge current events impacting our communities in the short- and long-term, identify how we are affected, and discover how to release and heal. As the focus of each Learning Lab changes depending on what the CBOs are navigating and prioritizing, we will continue to ask ourselves: “What medicine do I have to give? What medicine do I need?”
Sustaining connection in virtual spaces
Rounding out the inaugural SYNC year, the Learning Community convened in Houston, TX to revisit previously introduced Learning Lab topics, strengthen newly formed relationships, and celebrate the successes of the program year. Keeping with this momentum in SYNC 2.0, the Core Partners developed various ways in which the CBOs can continue to be in community with one another online.
In addition to 1:1 and open forum coaching sessions with the Core Partners, Learning Community members will be able to participate in affinity groups and a virtual family reunion. The affinity groups will provide a space for connection, support, and solution-sharing based on shared experiences—whether professional (such as women in violence prevention), personal (like survivors who have lost loved ones to violence), or regional (such as those working in the Midwest). The virtual family reunion will offer a more informal setting to build relationships and enjoy time together outside of structured programming.
Looking ahead, SYNC will cover how to craft compelling narratives to mobilize support and influence policy, learn about innovative funding models, leverage data for collective action, foster intergenerational healing while honoring Indigenous wisdom, and more. Every SYNC gathering is a demonstration of how people with deep roots in community harbor the wisdom, ingenuity, and creativity to best serve their community.