Addressing Structural Factors to Prevent Youth Violence Through a Multisector Collaborative Approach

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Sociology
• Community Interventions

Background:

• Youth violence is a major public health issue, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities.
• Structural factors like institutional policies concentrate youth in high-violence areas, hindering intervention effectiveness.
• Addressing macro-level factors through community-level approaches is crucial for sustainable youth violence prevention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the collaborative process used by the ThrYve Coalition in developing and implementing community-level strategies to prevent youth violence.
• To assess the application of the Institute of Medicine's Framework for Collaborative Public Health Action in a real-world setting.
• To identify change lever strategies targeting social and structural determinants of youth violence.

Main Methods:

• The study utilized a community-based participatory approach, guided by the Institute of Medicine's Framework.
• The ThrYve Coalition convened over 40 partners across 15 sectors to identify 87 change lever strategies.
• Data were collected on the implementation of these strategies between 2018 and 2022.

Main Results:

• The ThrYve Coalition successfully implemented over 199 community changes between 2018 and 2022.
• These changes addressed social and structural determinants influencing youth violence.
• The collaborative process facilitated multisectoral engagement for sustainable change.

Conclusions:

• Community coalitions, through multisectoral collaboration, can effectively implement strategies to address structural determinants of youth violence.
• The study demonstrates the feasibility of using a collaborative framework to drive systemic change in youth violence prevention.
• Sustained community and societal-level efforts are essential for long-term reductions in youth violence.