The Trace: December 21, 2020
In their piece in The Trace, Champe Barton, Brian Freskos, and Daniel Nass cover the recent surge in gun violence due to the pandemic. They cite PI's Lisa Fujie Parks: "The pandemic (reduced access to) “just about every positive source of social connection or mental health outlet available to these communities most at risk for gun violence.”
Parks and Recreation Magazine: December 10, 2020
In her piece in Parks and Recreation Magazine, PI's Elva Yañez discusses PI's research on life expectancy in relation to parks and green space, conducted with UCLA’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences and an advisory board of community-based organizations. The research, based on data from the Los Angeles, California, shows that increasing park acreage in areas that face park deficits and low levels of tree canopy could lead to significant population-level increases in life expectancy.
ACEs Connection: October 29, 2020
In her blog in ACEs Connection, Jane Stevens highlights PI's recent report, "Beyond Screening: Achieving California's Bold Goal of Reducing Exposure to Childhood Trauma." She quotes PI's Juliet Sims and Manal J. Aboelata: "As California embarks on its campaign to reduce adverse childhood experiences and the health and mental health conditions that can result from them," the authors write, "it is important that our approach include elements that reduce adverse community experiences and build community resilience."
California Health Report: October 19, 2020
In her op ed in California Health Report, PI's Elva Yañez advocates for Proposition 15 which will generate an estimated $8 to 12 billion in funds per year, 40% of which will go to schools, with the other 60% will going toward county-level services like nutrition assistance, rent relief, and public health contact-tracing programs, among others.
Kenosha News: October 14, 2020
In this article in Kenosha News, Amy Greil applies PI's ACE|R framework to analyze and explain the healing work happening in Kenosha at the community level.
The Trace: September 11, 2020
In their article in The Trace, Anthony Smith of Cities United and PI's Rachel Davis call for a public health approach to community violence. "Tactics like the ones we’re seeing federal agents carry out in Portland, Oregon, don’t make communities safer — they exacerbate the risk of violence... Rather than cut programs that save lives, we should listen to the demands from protesters who are calling for diverting funds from law enforcement to community resources that support safe and equitable communities in the first place."
Health Promotion Practice: July 26, 2020
In July 2020, Prevention Institute’s Ruben Cantu, Dana Fields-Johnson, and Sheila Savannah authored “Applying a Social Determinants of Health Approach to the Opioid Epidemic” for the journal Health Promotion Practice. In it, they describe a community initiative they were involved in that applied upstream, primary prevention strategies to address the underlying causes of the opioid crisis.
California Health Report: July 21, 2020
In their op-ed in California Health Report, Sarah-Michael Gaston of Youth Forward and PI's Juliet Sims explain how cities' taxes on marijuana are going toward funding for the police instead of the communities most harmed by the War on Drugs. They offer recommendations for how cities can shift these funds from the criminal justice system back into the communities they were intended to benefit in the first place.
CalMatters: July 6, 2020
PI's Manal J. Aboelata, featured in CalMatters, denounces the recent threats to public health officials and urges Americans to stand up for public health.
CalMatters: June 16, 2020
In her commentary for CalMatters, PI's Lisa Fujie Parks explains how cities can and should shift funds from policing to preventing violence before it happens through a public health approach.
