Funding for Local Health Departments to Prevent Violence
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will award $4.5 million over five years to local health departments to “work with other sectors in their community to stop youth violence before it starts.” Four grants averaging approximately $225,000 each year will be awarded to local, city or county public health departments to apply comprehensive strategies to prevent violence affecting youth. The application deadline is June 13. Read the announcement for how to apply.

New Resources for Cities to Prevent Violence

MMWR on Firearm Homicide: Rates of firearm homicide were generally higher among residents of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas than for the U.S. overall in 2006 and 2007, according to an article in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Rates for central cities were among the highest, and rates of firearm homicide among youth 10 to 19 years old often exceeded rates for residents of all ages in these areas. Read the MMWR article for full details.
RWJF Issue Brief Highlights UNITY: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) highlighted the UNITY Urban Agenda and UNITY Policy Platform as resources for developing strategies that address the root causes of violence. Part of a series on the social determinants of health, “How Social Factors Shape Health: Violence, Social Disadvantage and Health” includes local success stories that are described in Prevention Institute’s Addressing the Intersection: Preventing Violence and Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living. Download this RWJF issue brief.
Municipal Action Guide: The National League of Cities’ “Fully Incorporating Prevention in Comprehensive Youth Violence Reduction Strategies” is a four-page brief with Strategies, Action Steps, Resources, and Examples of Local Prevention Efforts. UNITY cities Boston, Minneapolis, Oakland and San Diego are featured. This Municipal Action Guide draws upon the prevention continuum in the UNITY Policy Platform. Download this Municipal Action Guide.
UNITY Fact Sheets on Linkages: UNITY recently released three fact sheets to help make the case that violence undermines efforts across sectors and that preventing violence needs to be integrated into the work of health/public health, mental health and education. These fact sheets can help you persuade colleagues and partners to include preventing violence in their work. They are: Links Between Violence and Chronic Illness, Links Between Violence and Mental Health, and Links Between Violence and Learning.

Prevention Institute and UNITY Co-Chair Honored
Prevention Institute was honored to accept the 2011 National Health Impact Award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for outstanding contributions to the field of injury and violence prevention. UNITY Co-Chair Billie Weiss received the Alex Kelter Vision Award from Safe States Alliance for her leadership and research in the field.

5/20: UNITY Project Director Rachel Davis and Neil Rainford of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented “Preventing Violence through UNITY: Lessons Learned from a National Initiative” at a conference in Miami hosted by the Office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi titled Preventing Crime in the Black Community.
5/2: UNITY hosted a successful meeting of state health officials to advance state efforts to prevent violence in U.S. cities. Sponsored in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and Safe States Alliance, the meeting made connections between violence and other health issues and community concerns, and participants called the event “transformational.” Stay tuned for next steps.
4/28: UNITY Project Director Rachel Davis emphasized the value of prevention at the Institute of Medicine Global Violence Prevention Forum’s workshop on the social and economic cost of violence. View the meeting agenda and presentations at the event web page.

UNITY Staff Updates
Prevention Institute welcomes Cyrée Jarelle Johnson. Cyrée works as a program assistant on UNITY and other initiatives that prevent violence. With her health education and media experience, Cyrée brings valuable skills to the UNITY team, especially in the areas of preventing sexual and domestic violence. Read her full bio. Also, we congratulate UNITY Program Manager Annie Lyles on the birth of her daughter, Sophia Estelle, on May 22. Everyone is healthy. Annie will rejoin us from leave in 12 weeks.

UNITY is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the CDC's national youth violence prevention initiative, Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE), and in part by The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF). Created in 1992 as an independent, private foundation, TCWF’s mission is to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness, education and disease prevention programs. For more information, visit www.preventioninstitute.org/unity.

"Violence is not the problem of one neighborhood or group, and the response and solutions are not the responsibility of one sector of the community or of one agency, professional group, or business. Coming together and owning this problem and the solutions are central."

--Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Harvard School of Public Health