.

Photo of the Solidarity Mural by the City of Dubuque, Iowa

No single policy, system change, or resource allocation strategy on its own will be sufficient in increasing safety and racial justice. Instead, violence prevention practitioners should consider how their efforts can support an ecosystem of strategies that increase protective factors for safety and decrease risk factors for violence. This includes repairing the harms caused by past and current policies, systems, and resource decisions while also actively preventing future harm. To be most effective, policy, systems change, and resource allocation strategies should be grounded in the life experiences, leadership, and collective power of communities that experience structural racism and violence. Importantly, violence prevention strategies should span a prevention continuum that young people in a local planning process have referred to as: upfront, in the thick, and aftermath (traditionally referred to as: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention).¹ 

• Upfront strategies create the conditions that people need to be safe. Upfront strategies, such as voting rights, living wages, access to early childhood education, and equitable community investment (e.g. safe parks and open space), help to ensure that institutions and systems are just and create equitable access to protective conditions at the community and neighborhood levels. 
   
• In the thick strategies influence risk and protective factors in a focused way for people who may be at increased risk for violence perpetration and/or victimization because of their exposure to multiple risk factors, without compensatory protective factors. Examples include hospital based violence intervention programs, and emergency medical and mental health mobile crisis care. 
   
• In the aftermath strategies can help to mend social connections and reduce the likelihood of violence reoccurring, even in the midst of challenging conditions. They include culturally-rooted healing practices, community-driven restorative justice practices, and community-led re-entry supports that help individuals, families, and communities heal from the multiple traumatic effects of violence.

Learning Outcomes

• Explore parameters for defining key terms, concepts, and approaches related to racial justice policy, systems change, and resources

• Describe the relationship between civil rights protections and racial justice 

• Consider the roles, responsibilities, and contributions of different sectors and partners in implementing effective policy and systems change efforts

¹ This content has been slightly adapted from Community Safety Realized: Public Health Pathways to Preventing Violence. Prevention Institute and Big Cities Health Coalition, May 2021.