Site Descriptions

Current YVPCs

YVPC accomplishments

Currently there are five funded centers. Knowledge gained from this research will inform local solutions to reduce community rates of youth violence across the country. The 2021 – 2026 YVPCs are:

  • Center for Youth Equity at Tulane University
    Tulane University of Louisiana
  • Kansas City Youth Violence Prevention Research Center
    University of Kansas, Lawrence
  • Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center
    University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
  • VCU’s Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development
    Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Youth Violence Prevention Center-Denver
    University of Colorado, Boulder

In addition to the currently funded YVPCs, the 2015-2020 and 2016-2021 cycle will continue their work for an additional year.

Research Project Descriptions

Center for Youth Equity at Tulane University
The root causes and disproportionate rates of youth violence in African American communities are shaped by the need for community-centered, strengths-based approaches that address critical barriers to prevention. Tulane’s work will create a hub for research, community-engaged outreach and translation, and training and education in youth violence and injury prevention for the Gulf South region. This project will establish the first CDC-funded Prevention Research Center in the Gulf South explicitly focused on youth violence prevention. The Center will implement and evaluate a multi-component program to prevent and reduce exposure to police violence among younger African American youth through youth-led grassroots organizing for social and structural change. It will also evaluate the effects of a hospital-initiated, community-integrated, practice-based approach in reducing gun violence among older African American youth.

Kansas City Youth Violence Prevention Research Center (YVPC-KC)
Black and Hispanic/Latinx youth experience disparities in violence nationally and in the Kansas City metro area. The Kansas City YVPC is designed to expand the evidence base for participatory strategies to prevent and reduce youth violence, particularly among Black and Latinx youth. Strategies include ThrYve4Change, a youth mobilization strategy, and REVIVE (Reducing the Effects of Violence through Intervention and Victim Empowerment), a scaled multisite hospital violence prevention program. This project will examine changes in community conditions, risk and protective factors, firearm-related hospital admissions, and youth homicides.

Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center (MI-YVPC)
Structural factors associated with racism and inequitable distribution of resources are determinants of violence, including interpersonal firearm violence. The MI-YVPC’s project results will be used to create toolkits for community and youth-engaged firearm violence prevention that can be translated to multiple contexts. MI-YVPC will implement and evaluate emergency department and community-driven strategies to advance youth firearm injury prevention in Muskegon, Michigan and surrounding area, and Washington, DC. A multi-case study design will be used to analyze community-level police incidents and injury data. This project will also include a public health leadership training program for underrepresented minority undergraduate and graduate students.

Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development – VCU Healthy Communities for Youth
Youth account for the majority of homicide victims in Richmond, Virginia, and African American youth are disproportionately impacted. VCU’s project will help identify strategies that prevent and decrease rates of youth violence in Richmond and similar communities. VCU’s efforts will support the implementation and evaluation of complementary participatory strategies for youth violence prevention in three communities in Richmond experiencing economic disadvantage. Impact will be measured based on community-level indicators of youth violence exposure. The strategies include a culturally responsive curriculum for African American adolescents, a method where youth and adults identify and develop an action plan to address social and structural conditions, hospital-based violence prevention, and partner education to build capacity for youth-serving grassroots organizations.

Youth Violence Prevention Center-Denver
The YVPC- Denver project is designed to build the science and create a collaborative, practical, and culturally informed approach for violence prevention. YVPC-Denver’s project will use a youth-community-university partnership to implement and evaluate youth violence prevention strategies (The Power of One for Youth Engagement Initiative, Violence Prevention and Interruption through Bystander Reporting and Social Media Monitoring, and Enhancing Youth Athletics and Career Development Programs) in two Denver, Colorado communities experiencing a high violence burden. Youth receive training through a youth advisory council and an early career researcher program. Success will be measured by reductions in rates of youth violence, increases in positive social opportunities, and sustainable improvements in public health practices.

Past Initiatives

Building community. Preventing violence

The YVPCs research effective violence prevention approaches to promote thriving youth and build safer communities.