At-Risk Intervention and Mentoring

Under the Community-Based Violence Prevention Field-Initiated Research and Evaluation Program OJJDP will fund field-initiated studies to inform efforts to prevent and reduce youth violence (including gun violence) and violence exposure at the community level.

The Community-Based Violence Prevention (CBVP) Field-Initiated Research and Evaluation (FIRE) Program is designed to support methodologically rigorous research and evaluations that inform policy and practice consistent with the Department of Justice's mission. This program seeks to fund field-initiated studies to inform efforts to prevent and reduce youth violence (including gun violence) and violence exposure at the community level by building the evidence-base in this area that will inform both policy and practice.
OJJDP encouraged applicants to propose research questions and/or evaluation studies designed to produce findings with practical implications for efforts to prevent and reduce youth violence (including gun violence) and violence exposure at the community level with an emphasis on two key elements for the design: 1) establishing a high level of rigor and 2) proposing research questions with a high degree of relevance on a national scale.

Scientific evaluation is needed to provide evidence-based recommendations for hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs). At-risk Intervention and Mentoring (AIM), Denver Healths HVIP, has been fully operational for one year and has successfully provided 152 high-risk youth (ages 10-24 years) with ED-based bedside interventions, and has referred 42 youth for mentoring and case management. Although the AIM program has been successful, the effectiveness of this program can only be measured in a scientific evaluation that compares the AIM program to traditional hospital-based resources. In order to complete a rigorous scientific evaluation of this larger-scale study, built on our experience to date, we are seeking financial resources to conduct this research.

The Denver HVIP proposes to conduct the following research to understand if:

1. The "teachable moment," when youth present after a violent injury, is more powerful than other avenues for change.

2. Hospitals should allocate resources to intercede with at-risk youth.

3. HVIPs like AIM are cost-effective as compared to traditional hospital-based services.

4. Specific socioeconomic and risk factors can identify clients that would most benefit from HVIPs intensive prevention and intervention efforts.

CA/NCF