Grantee Profiles

Overview
The Monterey County Health Department’s (MCHD) Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) Program focused on implementing strategies that prevent youth violence before it starts in the county seat of Salinas. Through STRYVE, MCHD implemented three prevention strategies and worked with an active coalition of multi-sector partners.

Strategies and Approaches in Action
Teach Safe and Healthy Relationship Skills – Social-Emotional Learning Programs for Youth
Teaching safe and healthy relationship skills is an effective strategy for preventing teen dating violence.

Social-emotional learning is one primary prevention approach to teach safe, healthy relationship skills. Social-emotional learning programs for youth promote mutually respectful, caring, non-violent relationships among young people. These programs work with youth to help them develop social-emotional skills such as empathy, respect, and healthy communication and conflict resolution skills.

MCHD implemented Safe Dates, a social-emotional learning program for youth, with evidence of effectiveness. Safe Dates is a 10-session dating abuse prevention program to teach students about healthy dating relationships. This approach promotes social norms and beliefs that dating violence is preventable and not acceptable while building students’ conflict and anger management skills.

Promoting Family Environments that Support Healthy Development – Parenting Skills and Family Relationship Programs
Promoting family environments that support healthy development is an effective strategy for preventing youth violence.

Implementing parenting skills and family relationship programs is one primary prevention approach that promotes positive family environments. This approach supports caregivers and teaches communication, problem-solving, and behavior monitoring, and management skills. Specific program content varies by the age of the child. It often has consistent themes of child development, parental monitoring and management of children’s behavior, appropriate use of rewards and punishment, parent-child communication and relationships, and youth’s interpersonal and problem-solving skills.

MCHD implemented Strengthening Families, a parenting skills and family relationship program, to enhance family support and connectedness. Strengthening Families helps improve parents’ skills for disciplining, managing emotions and conflict, and communicating with their children; promoting youths’ interpersonal and problem-solving skills; and creating family activities to build cohesion and positive parent-child interactions.

Create Protective Community Environments – Modify the Physical and Social Environment
MCHD also engaged in creating protective community environments for youth, another effective strategy for preventing youth violence.

Modifying the physical and social environment is one primary prevention approach to create protective youth environments. This approach enhances and maintains the physical characteristics of places people gather, to foster social interaction, strengthen connectedness, and increase shared trust among community members.

MCHD implemented Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), an environmental design approach focused on improving building design to reduce opportunities for disputes and violence and promote positive behavior. CPTED promotes positive interpersonal interactions and the safe use of spaces through enhanced visibility, access management, and proper maintenance and design. In Monterey County, CPTED was used to engage youth in the civic process and increase neighborhood support and cohesion.

Impact Example
Monterey County: Building and Grounds Improvements Made Community Safer
In Monterey County, CA, county leaders were concerned about homicide and teen dating violence rates.  Homicides in Salinas, Monterey County’s county seat, increased in 2015 and early 2016, and were associated with gang-related violence, plus, Salinas domestic violence and violent sex reports among 10- to 24-year-olds suggested a significant teen dating violence problem. As a result, the Monterey County Health Department funded a community organization that helped youth interns implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). CPTED promotes positive interactions through community space design and safety improvements. Through the program, interns were trained to report building and grounds safety concerns to the City of Salinas government, monitor conditions, and follow up to ensure improvement work completion. City improvements included removing gang graffiti, trimming bushes to eliminate hiding places, and maintaining public areas better. From 2019 to 2020, the city fixed 50% of the unsafe conditions the youth interns reported across 58 city sites. In Salinas, this program is one of several community efforts implemented to support youth and prevent violence. Since these programs were introduced, the city has seen an encouraging decline in violent assaults among youth ages 10-24, from a rate of 12.5 per 1,000 population in 2015 to 8.9 per 1,000 population in 2020.

Contact Info
Monterey County Health Department Website: www.mtyhd.org/STRYVE

Note: County of Monterey Department of Health is now funded under Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives (PREVAYL) to address multiple forms of violence impacting adolescents and young adults in communities with high rates of violence.

Overview
The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) worked with city agencies and partner organizations to implement teen dating and youth violence prevention strategies in neighborhoods with high youth violence rates. Plus, BCHD is enhanced a city-wide violence prevention strategic plan and participating in a multi-sector coalition.

Strategies and Approaches in Action
Teach Safe and Healthy Relationship Skills – Social-Emotional Learning Programs for Youth
Teaching safe and healthy relationship skills is an effective strategy for preventing teen dating violence.

Social-emotional learning is one primary prevention approach to teach safe, healthy relationship skills. Social-emotional learning programs for youth promote mutually respectful, caring, non-violent relationships among young people. These programs work with youth to help them develop social-emotional skills such as empathy, respect, and healthy communication and conflict resolution skills.

BCHD’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention implemented Safe Dates, a social-emotional learning program for youth, with evidence of effectiveness. Safe Dates is a 10-session dating abuse prevention program to teach students about healthy dating relationships. This approach promotes social norms and beliefs that dating violence is preventable and unacceptable while building students’ conflict and anger management skills.

Create Protective Community Environments – Street Outreach and Community Norm Change
BCHD’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention also created protective community environments for youth, an effective strategy for preventing youth violence.

Street outreach and community norm change is one primary prevention approach to creating protective community environments for youth. This approach connects trained outreach staff with community residents to mediate conflicts, promote nonviolence norms, and connect youth with community supports to reduce risks and build buffers against violence.

BCHD’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention implemented Safe Streets, a street outreach and community norm change program designed to mediate and interrupt high-risk situations before they become violent. In Baltimore, the Safe Streets curriculum is adapted and implemented in the school community. The curriculum includes training on anger management, goal setting, and changing norms around violence.

Contact Info
Baltimore City Health Department: https://health.baltimorecity.gov/programs/violence-prevention

Overview
The Minneapolis Health Department (MHD) implemented an integrated public health response to reduce youth violence and teen dating violence in North Minneapolis. Through their Office of Violence Prevention, MHD implemented evidence-based prevention strategies, enhancing a youth violence prevention strategic plan, working with multi-sector partners, and advancing violence prevention as a public health issue.

Strategies and Approaches in Action
Engage Influential Adults and Peers – Men and Boys as Allies in Prevention
Engaging influential adults and peers to promote positive relationship expectations and condemn violent and unhealthy relationship behaviors among adolescents and young adults is an effective teen dating violence prevention strategy.

Engaging men and boys as prevention allies is one primary approach to preventing teen dating violence, as men and boys are encouraged to help prevent teen dating violence. This approach helps men and boys support actual and potential victims by intervening and speaking out, and also teaches skills, and promotes social norms that reduce their own risk for future perpetration.

MHD implemented Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM), an evidence-based program that trains athletic coaches to discuss gender norms and educate athletes about positive communication. This program strengthens positive relationships between young people and caring adults, addresses unhealthy and harmful cultural norms, and promotes change in climate, process, and norms within a school setting.

Create Protective Community Environments – Street Outreach and Community Norm Change
MHD also engaged in creating protective community environments for youth, an effective strategy for preventing youth violence.

Street outreach and community norm change is one primary prevention approach to create protective community environments for youth. This approach connects trained outreach staff with community residents to mediate conflicts, promote nonviolence norms, and connect youth to community supports to reduce risks and build buffers against violence.

MHD implemented Street and Community Outreach (SCO). This street outreach and community norm change approach promotes the presence of influential adults trained to recognize, respond to, and prevent unhealthy relationships in the community. The Minneapolis SCO team worked to improve and sustain safe environments and create youth-friendly spaces that will strengthen social connections.

Impact Example
Minneapolis: Sports Mentor Program Taught Healthy Relationship Skills and Decreased Violence Risk
In north Minneapolis, assault injuries, firearm-related injuries, rape-related injuries, and homicides have been a big problem among youth ages 10-24 years old. According to 2012-2014 Minnesota Hospital Association injury data, 35% of assault-related injuries, 58% of firearm-related injuries, and 29% of rape-related assault injuries among Minneapolis residents ages 10-24 years happened in north Minneapolis zip codes 55411 and 55412. In 2015, 40% of juvenile (ages 10-17 years) homicides and 55% of young adult (ages 18-24 years) homicides also occurred in north Minneapolis. To prevent dating violence, the Minneapolis City Health Department implemented the Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM) program in north Minneapolis, in which high school coaches taught their young male athletes healthy relationship skills during daily sports practices.  From 2016-2021, four high schools and one community organization implemented CBIM, so nearly 400 student-athletes and more than 60 coaches and community advocates participated in the program. After year four of the program, program survey data reports that 36% of students improved in recognizing abuse, and 47% of students reported they were more likely to intervene in violent situations. In this time period, youth violent crime arrests also decreased by 20% in north Minneapolis.

Contact Info
Minneapolis Health Department: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/health/

Note: City of Minneapolis Department of Health is now funded under Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives (PREVAYL) to address multiple forms of violence impacting adolescents and young adults in communities with high rates of violence.

Overview
The Houston Health Department (HHD) worked with local government agencies, community stakeholders, and youth-serving organizations to implement teen dating and youth violence prevention activities in communities with high rates of youth violence. To support this work, HHD led a multi-sector youth violence prevention coalition and implemented a city-wide strategic plan.

Strategies and Approaches in Action
Teach Safe and Healthy Relationship Skills – Social-Emotional Learning Programs for Youth
Teaching safe and healthy relationship skills is an effective strategy for preventing teen dating violence.

Social-emotional learning is one primary prevention approach to teach safe, healthy relationship skills. Social-emotional learning programs for youth promote mutually respectful, caring, non-violent relationships among young people. These programs work with youth to help them develop social-emotional skills such as empathy, respect, and healthy communication and conflict resolution skills.

HHD implemented Fourth R, a social-emotional learning program for youth, with evidence of effectiveness. Fourth R is a classroom-based curriculum that includes peer and school components. This program promotes healthy relationships and reduces peer and dating violence, substance misuse, and unhealthy sexual behavior. Fourth R is implemented in schools located in communities with high rates of adolescent involvement in violent crime.

Create Protective Community Environments – Modify the Physical and Social Environment
HHD also engaged in creating protective community environments for youth, an effective strategy for preventing youth violence.

Modifying the physical and social environment is one primary prevention approach to creating protective youth environments. This approach enhances and maintains the physical characteristics of places people gather, to foster social interaction, strengthen connectedness, and increase shared trust among community members.

HHD implemented Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), an environmental design approach focused on improving building design to reduce opportunities for disputes and violence and promote positive behavior. CPTED promotes positive interpersonal interactions and the safe use of spaces through enhanced visibility, access management, and proper maintenance and design. Concurrently with Fourth R, HHD implemented CPTED in schools located in communities with high rates of adolescent involvement in violent crime.

Impact Example
Houston: Educating and Empowering Youth to Prevent Violence Early
By 2015, research showed five Houston zip codes had the highest youth violence rates in the city: 77072, 77051, 77053, 77035, and 77088. In response, the Houston Health Department partnered with researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the University of Texas Medical Branch to implement two teen dating violence prevention strategies. The first involved implementing the Fourth R curriculum, which teaches adolescents how to build healthy relationships, prevent violence (bullying, cyberbullying, peer and dating violence), and avoid substance use. The curriculum includes interactive classroom-based activities and lessons, plus school and community messaging. The second strategy was Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), which promotes positive interactions through improved community space design and safety. From 2017 to 2021, three school districts—including 13 high schools in some of Houston’s most at-risk areas—implemented both Fourth R and CPTED strategies which reached 3,900 students. During the 2020-21 school year, more than 90% of students surveyed reported that they were less likely to participate in aggressive or violent behaviors, and most believed less violence was in their schools because of Fourth R (75.6%) and environmental design improvements (68.9%).

Contact Info
Houston Health Department: https://www.houstontx.gov/health/

Overview
The Multnomah County Health Department (MCHD) worked closely with community and partner organizations to address violence as a public health issue. Through collaborative efforts, MCHD implemented teen dating and youth violence prevention activities across multiple levels of the social-ecological model and in various settings.

Strategies and Approaches in Action
Engage Influential Adults and Peers – Men and Boys as Allies in Prevention
Engaging influential adults and peers to promote positive relationship expectations and condemn violent and unhealthy relationship behaviors among adolescents and young adults is an effective teen dating violence prevention strategy.

Engaging men and boys as prevention allies is one primary approach to preventing teen dating violence, as men and boys are encouraged to help prevent teen dating violence. This approach helps men and boys support actual and potential victims by intervening and speaking out, and also teaches skills, and promotes social norms that reduce their own risk for future perpetration.

Multnomah County implemented Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM). CBIM is an evidence-based program that trains athletic coaches to discuss gender norms and educate athletes about positive communication. This program strengthens positive relationships between young people and caring adults, addresses unhealthy and harmful cultural norms, and promotes change in climate, process, and norms within a school setting.

Create Protective Community Environments – Modify the Physical and Social Environment
MCHD also engaged in creating protective community environments for youth, an effective strategy for preventing youth violence.

Modifying the physical and social environment is one primary prevention approach to create protective youth environments. This approach enhances and maintains the physical characteristics of places people gather, to foster social interaction, strengthen connectedness, and increase shared trust among community members.

MCHD implemented Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), an environmental design approach focused on improving building design to reduce opportunities for disputes and violence and promote positive behavior. CPTED promotes positive interpersonal interactions and the safe use of spaces through enhanced visibility, access management, and proper maintenance and design. Multnomah implemented CPTED to build protective factors through place-based prevention activities, youth and community empowerment, and community resiliency.

Impact Example
Multnomah County: Physical and Social Environment Modification Had Positive Results for Youth
Multnomah County, OR, is home to the state’s largest and fourth-largest cities (Portland and Gresham).  The county health department noted gentrification and historically harmful policies had displaced communities of color and populations experiencing the highest violence risk factors (poverty, unemployment, low educational attainment, etc.) from their traditional Portland neighborhoods into East Multnomah County. In 2016, Multnomah County Health Department implemented Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), which promotes positive interactions through community space design and safety improvements. Since 2019, Multnomah County Health Department has reached more than 4,250 community members through neighborhood CPTED events and projects such as installing little free libraries and futsal (scaled-down soccer played on paved surfaces) courts and starting futsal tournaments in East Multnomah County. Through the health department, students also built community gardens, maintained parks, and delivered free meals. Program evaluation data revealed that, among those students who participated in CPTED activities, 95% reported confidence using non-violent problem-solving skills to avoid a fight, 95% felt increased community connection, and 97% believed they can set an example of nonviolence for younger generations.

Contact Info
Multnomah County Health Department Website: https://multco.us/health

Note: Multnomah County Health Department is now funded under Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives (PREVAYL) to address multiple forms of violence impacting adolescents and young adults in communities with high rates of violence.