Using SenseMaker in a Participatory Process to Adapt a Community Violence Intervention: Protocol and Lessons Learned

The Cure Violence model, a widely implemented community violence intervention, has shown mixed effectiveness, highlighting the need for locally tailored adaptations.

This study presents a novel mixed-methods, participatory approach for capturing and interpreting participant experiences to adapt the community violence intervention for Southwest Philadelphia.

Penn Community Violence Prevention staff, a community advisory board, and other stakeholders participated in iterative workshops, interviews, and SenseMaker sessions. Guided by implementation science frameworks, we used a five-step process to identify multilevel barriers and facilitators, generate and refine implementation strategies, and prioritize strategies using SenseMaker dyads, triads, and visual dashboards.

The participatory process using Sense-Maker enhanced stakeholder engagement, structured implementation strategies, and provided interactive data visualizations to support decision-making. Addressing power dynamics and maintaining engagement post adaptation were critical to success.

This study introduces a structured, participatory framework for community violence intervention adaptation, demonstrating the value of integrating novel data collection and visualization methods.