Accelerating a Public Health Approach to Gun Violence Prevention

This project strengthens the capacity of the public health ecosystem—including public health departments, community-based organizations, and local partners—to shift narratives and promote data practices that elevate community-rooted solutions for safe, thriving communities. In partnership with the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC), we are advancing a public health, community- and racial equity–centered model for preventing gun violence that emphasizes upstream strategies, data practices that reflect lived realities, and narrative change that moves beyond punishment-based approaches. This work takes place over a two-year period, from December 2023 through October 2025.

Our efforts contribute to long-term systems change by deepening understanding of the factors that shape community safety, strengthening the field’s ability to use contextual and experiential data, and expanding the adoption of narratives that highlight shared responsibility, prevention, and community leadership. By supporting local and national partners to align policy, data, and narrative strategies, we are helping build community health ecosystems grounded in equity, connection, and durable safety.

Primary activities:

• Identifying metrics related to community safety, substance use, homelessness, and health equity that better reflect local factors shaping wellbeing. 

• Guiding the application of contextual and experiential data and informing updates to the Big Cities Health Inventory Data Platform, including new indicators such as youth not in school or working, limited internet access, and cost of rent.

• Consulting with public health and communications leaders to shape strategies that shift dominant narratives on community safety toward prevention, shared responsibility, and community-driven solutions.

• Assessing narrative gaps and opportunities, including lack of attention to root causes, the need to uplift community resilience, and the value of wellbeing and trust metrics.

• Implementing recommendations such as developing a multisector framework for narrative change and creating an online repository of narrative resources for practitioners.