2023
The JPRC has had a long and fruitful partnership with the American Institutes of Research on studies of the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative, a violence prevention model in Massachusetts. Building on this work and partnership, AIR and the JPRC won a grant from the U.S. National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to conduct a study of violence prevention in the greater Boston region. The JPRC will help develop and test a model for evaluating approaches to preventing violence that span government, community, and health systems, with the goal of producing a comprehensive model for understanding how individuals experience these systems and what their resulting outcomes are. This evaluation is being designed to acknowledge that jurisdictions engage in a variety of violence reduction strategies led by different agencies and community members, requiring an assessment approach that documents how these agencies coordinate their efforts across the community. The research has a particular focus on Boston’s hospital-based violence intervention and prevention efforts which aim to serve priority populations that are at risk for violence in Boston.