A Collective Efficacy Intervention to Promote Community Resiliency: Protocol for a Quasi-Experimental Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Community Psychology
• Urban Studies

Background:

• Community and youth violence disproportionately affect people of color in urban settings.
• Violence has severe health, economic, and social consequences.
• Existing violence reduction strategies often focus on punishment rather than community empowerment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel Community Resiliency Collective Efficacy Intervention (CRCEI).
• To increase individual and neighborhood levels of collective efficacy.
• To reduce youth and community violence in urban areas.

Main Methods:

• Study conducted in 8 high-violence urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA.
• Used participatory propensity score matching to assign 4 intervention and 4 comparison sites.
• Assessed impact via surveys, observations, interviews, and secondary data; included ethnographic process evaluation.

Main Results:

• Hypothesizes CRCEI will increase collective efficacy and decrease violence exposure at individual and community levels.
• Aims to demonstrate a concrete, action-focused strategy for violence reduction.
• Evaluation tracks fidelity, costs, implementation, and identifies facilitators and barriers.

Conclusions:

• The CRCEI offers a community-oriented, collective efficacy-focused approach to violence reduction.
• Innovations include participatory site selection, capacity building, and community integration into research.
• This manuscript details the rationale and design for evaluating this novel intervention.