JPRC

JPRC Team Meets With the PA Lt. Governor and Violence Prevention Leaders

Trevor Fronius

JPRC Team Meets With the PA Lt. Governor and Violence Prevention Leaders

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The JPRC’s violence prevention team visited Harrisburg, PA, on March 19, 2024. The purpose of the meeting was to brief the Lt. Governor, Austin Davis, and convene leaders from five projects across Pennsylvania that have received multi-million dollar investments from the state through their “Coordinated Community Violence Intervention” (CCVI) grant.

Attending the meeting were (from left to right):

  • Alexis Pugh, Impact Services
  • Lori Toscano, JPRC (in front)
  • Father Paul Abernathy and Quinten Boose, Neighborhood Resilience Project
  • Jamie Noerpel, LogosWorks
  • Lt Governor Austin Davis
  • Cyrise Dixon, CASA Youth Advocates
  • Shaun Ali, JPRC
  • Betty Mulugeta, Philadelphia Department of Public Health
  • Kerwin Henderson, JPRC

WestEd Podcast on Preventing Gun Violence in the United States

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Gun violence impacts families, first responders, and communities in profound and lasting ways. In 2023, more than 18,000 persons died by homicide in the United States. And on June 26th, 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General declared gun violence a public health crisis.

In this episode of WestEd’s Leading Voices podcast, host Danny Torres talks with violence prevention experts from the JPRC and developers of the Violence Prevention Navigation Framework (VPNF): Lori Toscano, Shaun Ali, and Kerwin Henderson. Together, they help state and local leaders better understand the factors that contribute to or prevent violence within their communities—helping promote safe and equitable futures for all children, youth, and adults.

Their conversation covers the following topics:

  • Identifying the underlying factors that give rise to or mitigate gun violence
  • Leveraging big and local data to prioritize, assess, and develop appropriate strategies to reduce and prevent gun violence
  • Working with community and state leaders to improve violence prevention efforts across systems
  • Promoting equity and fostering growth

Launch of OJJDP-funded Continuum of Care Project for Youth in Pennsylvania

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The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), in partnership with the JPRC, were funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under its Continuum of Care for Local Communities grant program to implement the Supporting Youth Success in PA – Statewide Planning & Assessment Initiative project.

This funding will support the design, implementation, and sustainment of local coordinated continuums of care and opportunity for at-risk and system-involved youth in the Commonwealth, particularly in areas with limited resources/high levels of need. The project will engage state and local partners throughout Pennsylvania’s youth-serving infrastructure through a comprehensive and collaborative systems mapping, assessment, and planning process. The ultimate objective is the creation of a comprehensive statewide plan built on detailed cross-system data analysis offering funding, policy, and program recommendations to guide PA’s youth-focused services.

A press conference to launch this project and another Continuum of Care grant awarded to the City of Philadelphia, was held on Friday, April 12. Speakers included OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan, PCCD Executive Director Michael Pennington, Deputy Director of Philadelphia’s Office of Criminal Justice Lisa Varon, the Founder/Executive Director of the Bench Mark Program Will Keifer, and Shylah Searfoss and Trevor Losch, Youth Participants in the Bench Mark Program. Lori Toscano, the JPRC’s Director of Justice Technical Assistance (pictured), also gave remarks about the project.

Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia Featured on the Public Health Insight Podcast

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Dr. Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia, the JPRC’s Justice and Public Health Policy and Practice Director, was featured in a three-part series on the Public Health Insight (PHI) Podcast. PHI is a public health organization committed to modernizing evidence-informed public health communication, education, and knowledge translation. The PHI Podcast is a weekly podcast ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts globally.

In this PHI Podcast series, Jennifer discusses her pathway to a career working to reform the justice system and help communities address substance misuse. She discusses the history of opioids in the United States, and focuses on the different waves of epidemics the nation has faced. The final episode highlights why a systems-oriented approach holds promise for addressing the opioid epidemic.

Part 1: Substance Use, Criminal Justice, & Public Health Advocacy On Capitol Hill

Part 2: The Three Waves: OxyContin, Heroin, & Fentanyl

Part 3: Policies Gone Wrong & The Power Of Systems Thinking

New JPRC Teammate: Josh Carmouche

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We are excited to welcome Josh Carmouche to the WestEd JPRC team.

Josh is a School Safety Technical Assistance Specialist. He brings specialized experience in emergency management, physical security, and behavioral threat assessment strategies for the K-12 and junior college audiences.

You can learn more about Josh and all JPRC staff at the Who We Are page.

 

Josh Carmouche

Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia Presenting at the Joint Meeting On Youth Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery (Past Event)

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Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia, Justice and Public Health Policy and Practice Director at WestEd’s Justice and Prevention Research Center, will present at the Joint Meeting On Youth Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery  March 18-20, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. During this meeting, experts from around the country will convene to discuss pressing public health issues that impact our nation’s youth.

View details on WestEd’s presentation below.

Follow WestEd on LinkedIn and Facebook and share your insights from the conference.

WestEd Session

Monday, March 18

Jennifer Loeffler-CobiaSession: Helping Communities Address the Opioid Epidemic Through Systems Thinking: The Opioid Response Planning Checklist for Systems Thinking Readiness
Time: 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.
Presenter: Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia

Description: Prevention efforts often operate in silos and fall to organizations that have access to populations of interest, like public health, justice, and education organizations. Unconnected prevention efforts by organizations have failed to reduce rates of opioid misuse, morbidity, and death.

Both research studies and practical expertise have emphasized the need for a more synergistic approach that includes the entire substance misuse ecosystem in developing common system-level mission, vision, resource sharing, and practices to achieve better outcomes and save lives. However, implementing a system thinking approach to prevention first requires understanding implementation readiness factors, including motivation to change, access to resources, skillsets, buy-in, and leadership.

This session will explore the prevention implementation readiness literature as it relates to effective outcomes, and present information about a new assessment tool, the Opioid Response Planning Checklist for Systems Thinking Readiness. This tool is designed to help leaders within an ecosystem gauge their readiness to implement a system thinking approach to prevention and a process to support and build capacity in high-risk and high-need communities in the adoption, implementation, and dissemination of effective strategies to prevent opioid overdose deaths.

Communication, adaptability, responsiveness, system culture, power dynamics, community demographics, and data practices are some of the components that will be discussed in the session.