Building Partnerships

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Partnership members are best guided by which locations the hospital and law enforcement maps reveal as areas of the greatest violence and partnering with agencies or organizations that serve those areas. Cardiff Model Potential Partnership Members may include:

  • Hospitals
  • Law Enforcement Agencies
  • Public Health Department
  • City Planning/Zoning Officials
  • Mayor’s Office
  • Faith Based Organizations
  • Business Associations
  • Other Community Organizations

Who needs to participate The Cardiff model to create a Community  Safety Partnership (CSP)?*

Strong Cardiff Model Community Safety Partnerships will likely involve, at minimum, public health agencies, hospitals, and law enforcement organizations. Based on where maps are showing that violence is occurring, the CSP may bring in other government agencies and community organizations to partner on violence prevention programs and activities.

It is important to have designated hospital, public health, and law enforcement representatives, and multiple individuals if possible from each agency, participating in the CSP. Key hospital members may include emergency department physicians, charge nurses, or senior trauma staff. Key law enforcement individuals may include senior officers who report directly to command staff, those within leadership positions, and those who produce or assist in producing maps of where violence occurs, (referred to as “hotspot” maps in the law enforcement community).

Why is a multi-agency CSP important for violence prevention?

Multi-agency CSPs provide an opportunity to (1) frame violence prevention as a law enforcement strategy to reduce crime and (2) address violence prevention using a public health approach. The public health approach† encourages violence prevention at a population level to provide data and interventions with the maximum benefit for the largest number of people.

For example, in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, the Violence Prevention Board (local name of the CSP) identified many violent assaults occurring in particular streets in the city’s main entertainment district. After investigating, the Board realized these assaults were largely due to alcohol-intoxicated individuals bumping into each other on the sidewalks after a night of drinking, resulting in fights. This risk was made worse by people becoming frustrated while waiting to be served at fast food outlets and for taxis. The Board worked with the city to make streets more pedestrian friendly, move taxi stands, and appoint taxi marshals (capable guardians), which helped decrease violent assaults in the area.

Key steps to starting The Cardiff Model CSP in my community:
  1. Relationship Building
    1. Establish a CSP between law enforcement and local hospitals
    2. Determine the most useful injury information (time, date, and location are critical elements) for the CSP
    3. Establish regular intervals (e.g. monthly) for the CSP to meet and discuss violence information, maps identifying areas of violence, and other relevant issues. In-person meetings focused on violence prevention are a great way to build relationships between individuals and the organizations they represent.
      • Face-to-face meetings are important to develop relationships within the partnership, although phone meetings may sometimes be more convenient
      • CSPs are also encouraged to have opportunities for informal meeting settings such as over breakfast/ lunch/coffee or having a meeting followed by some time for socializing
  2. Hospital Buy-in and support (see “Hospital Guidance” Factsheet)
    1. Obtain hospital (emergency department/ trauma) leadership buy-in and support
    2. Obtain permissions for collecting and sharing injury information
    3. Navigate HIPAA and privacy rules which may require the involvement of a government public health agency to facilitate the exchange of information (see “Legal, Technical, and Financial Considerations” fact sheet)
  3. Law Enforcement Buy-in and Support (See “Law Enforcement Guidance” Factsheet)
    1. Obtain law enforcement leadership buy-in and support
    2. Obtain permissions for receiving hospital violence information and sharing combined hospital and law enforcement maps
  4. Training and Technical Processes
    1. Identify, establish procedures, and train hospital staff to collect violence information
    2. Identify, establish procedures, and, if appropriate, train law enforcement officers to combine violence information with existing law enforcement data to produce maps (note: law enforcement officers may not be producing maps, see 4c).
    3. Identify and establish procedures to share information and produce maps if a third party is producing the maps
  5. Violence Information and Map Sharing
    1. Identify hospital information technology/data quality team to set up data sharing
    2. Establish procedures for sharing violence information and maps
    3. If necessary, develop and sign a shared data use agreement
  6. Injury Prevention Intervention Identification, Planning, and Execution
    1. Review hospital violence and law enforcement information combined maps identifying areas of violence
    2. Identify an area or areas that the CSP would like to examine more closely to plan violence prevention activities
    3. Examine the types of violence occurring in the areas and consider all aspects of the area, such as: geographic area features (roads/ intersections, lighting, transportation options, etc.), businesses (bars, clubs, restaurants, lounges, gas stations, etc.), and other factors that may contribute to violence and injury
    4. Recruit appropriate partners to the CSP based on the patterns of violence (e.g. other government agencies such as alcohol licensing or code enforcement; business associations; or community leaders)
    5. Identify and review any existing evidence-based strategies that could be appropriate for this area (e.g. address risk and/or protective factors that are particularly relevant to the community or make use of unique opportunities in the community)
      • Evidence-based strategies used in other communities, including the U.K. serve as important resources to help guide implementation of violence prevention interventions
      • CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention has several technical packages on different topics (e.g. Child Abuse and Neglect, Sexual Violence, Youth Violence, Suicide) that may serve as a resource for identifying appropriate evidence-based interventions. Available here: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/technical-packages.html
    6. The partnership should determine next steps which may include: reviewing crime report narratives, visiting the area, examining the types of violence and injuries, talking with business/community leaders to see if they are willing to work with the CSP, and any other ideas that are driven by the maps.
    7. Cardiff Model interventions have included strategies at multiple levels:
      • Policy: Switching to toughened glass in bars and enforcing alcohol-related ordinances
      • Community: Repairing the appearance of buildings and vacant lots to improve lighting and visibility, increasing police patrols in high-violence areas, and creating more pedestrian-friendly streets
      • Individuals: Developing programs where “capable guardians,” such as clergy, assist at-risk individuals
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