Boston’s Integrated Approach to Violence Prevention:
The Work of the Defending Childhood Initiative and the National
Forum on Youth Violence Prevention
Christopher Byner
Catherine Fine
Andrea Perry
Social
Determinants
of Health
Youth Violence
Prevention
Funders Learning
Collaborative
Choice
Neighborhoods
Circle of Promise
Boston Public Schools
Mayor’s Office
Colleges/
Universities
Prosecutors
JCS/ YOU Boston
BCYF/ Streetworkers
Hospitals
Defending
Childhood
Initiative
Non-Profits
Boston Public Health
Commission
Health
EOHHS -- DYS
and DCF
PACT
Probation
City of Boston’s National Forum
Youth Violence Prevention Plan:
Foundations
 Comprehensive, multi-agency, City-led three year
action plan
 Person, place, and issue-based strategies
 Focused on gang and gun violence; young
offenders/victims, their families and communities
Enhanced information sharing and civic engagement
in support of Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement
and Reentry
Community building and family strengthening are key
components
Department of
Neighborhood
Development
Businesses
Corrections
Federal
Youth agencies
Clergy/ Faithbased
Boston Police
Department
Community
residents
YouthConnect
Community
Policing – Safe
Street Teams,
Ceasefire, etc.
MAIG
VIP
Boston Reentry
Initiatives –
adult and
juvenile
0
AGE
Early 30s
STRATEGIES
Early
Prevention
Low
Prevention
Intervention
Level of Risk
Enforcement
Reentry
High
Principles of our Work:
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Multi-disciplinary and reliance on partnerships
Community involved
Strengths-based
Considers social norms
Coordination and leveraging resources
Developmentally appropriate
Flexible
Evidence based/ evidence informed
• Decisions about where to focus resources and
place based initiatives are data driven
• “The integration of best research evidence with
[practicioner] expertise and [community, client]
values”(Institute of Medicine 2001 report, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System
for the 21st Century)
• Utilize effective methods to bridge the gap
between research and practice
Social Spheres
Community Level
Family/Adult Influencer
Level
Individual Level
Community Level
• The settings, such as schools, workplaces, and
neighborhoods, in which people live, work, and
play and the characteristics of these settings that
are associated with exposure to violence.
– Prevention – designed to impact the climate (including
social norms), processes, and policies in a community
– Intervention – designed to impact community-level
safety
Place-based Initiatives
– Choice
Neighborhoods
– Safe Streets Teams/
Community Policing
– OJJDP Grant in
Mattapan
– VIP/STRYVE
VIP/STRYVE: Violence Prevention
through Community Engagement
and Mobilization
 Residents are a community’s
primary asset
 Social cohesion and efficacy are
protective factors
 Community mobilization can
enhance social cohesion and
efficacy
Operation Ceasefire
– Multi-agency, national best practice
– Targeting most active gangs, in terms of gun
violence
– Messaging component to remove anonymity and
hold them accountable for their actions
• Offering services
• Promising enforcement consequences
– Relentless follow up on services and enforcement
Youth- Driven Social
Marketing Campaign
• Healthy relationships and
healthy masculinity messages
• Feature Boston youth in
campaign materials.
• Youth develop the messages,
manage social media and plan
events.
• Ongoing programming
implemented by Peer Leaders.
Family/Adult Influencer Level
• Close relationships (peers, partners, family
members) that may influence behavior or
otherwise impact the likelihood of experiencing
violence as a victim or perpetrator
• Prevention – designed to support and educate adult
influencers to provide positive modeling and messaging for
young people; to provide resources and opportunities for
siblings/children of those perpetrating violence
• Intervention – designed to provide resources for families
impacted by violence
Recognize the role of adult influencers (coaches,
youth workers) in communicating healthy
relationship messages to youth.
– Through DCI, Boston Centers for
Youth and Families lead effort
to train over 40 athletic directors
to implement Coaching Boys
to Men curriculum
– Host local Y-Summit
DCI identified need for increased training for
frontline staff, providers, and residents to:
• Increase their knowledge about the impact
of violence and trauma on children
• Increase skills to support to children,
adolescents and families
• Increase skills to promote resilience and
assets in children, adolescents and families
Build capacity of local agencies to implement Family
Nurturing Programs
– The Nurturing program is evidence based and has been
adapted for different cultural groups and developmental
phases.
– Strengths based approach that builds nurturing
relationships within and among families as well as
connects to local resources.
– Meets families where are they are: health centers, early
care centers, housing developments, and churches
Individual Level
• Personal history and identity factors that impact
the likelihood of becoming a victim or perpetrator
of violence
– Prevention strategies – designed to promote
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that prevent violence
– Intervention strategies – designed to provide
resources for those exposed to/affected by violence
and opportunities and/or suppression for those
perpetrating violence
PACT Initiative
PACT is a multi-agency, person and place-based firearm violence reduction
initiative that focuses on the individuals driving firearm violence in hotspot
neighborhoods.
The strategy aims to reduce firearm violence by:
•Targeting a small but dangerous group of gang involved youth with
proactive law enforcement suppression tactics,
•Offering intervention and prevention services to PACT individuals and
their family members, and
PACT Enforcement Strategy
BPD: Facilitation of creation and maintenance of PACT individuals,
convening of partners, ongoing analysis and communication.
Boston Police:
Districts and
Specialized Units
use all legal
levers at their
disposal, from
addressing
misdemeanor
infractions to
intensive
investigations.
Assisted in PACT
selection
process.
DA’s Office:
Targeted fasttrack
prosecution,
advocating for
held without
bail, prioritized
victim/ witness
services.
DYS:
Enhanced
supervision and
Probation:
prioritized
Enhanced
U. S. Attorney’s
Suffolk County
services which
Office:
Sheriff’s
supervision
may include
which may
Federal
Department:
area restrictions,
adoption of
Automatic
include area
curfews, and
restrictions
cases for
placement in the
home visits.
curfews, GPS
targeted
Boston Reentry
Caseworkers pull
prosecution.
monitoring, and Initiative (BRI).
youth back into
home visits.
secure facilities
for infractions to
stabilize them.
PACT Service Strategy Overview
• PACT Clients: Education and Employment
Services
• PACT Sibs/Children: Case Management with
focus on education and out of school time;
out of school time and employment
opportunities
Opportunities for practice change
through the PACT Initiative
• Providing services to children and siblings of
clients to interrupt cycle of violence
• Expanding frame of service delivery from jobs
to healing.
• Ask “What happened to you?”
• Challenge of accessing resources for multiple
exposure to violence
Intersection between community violence and
intimate partner violence
Year
Total
Arrests
Violent Offence
Arrests
Domestic Violence
Arrests
Year 1
210
66 arrests
• 31.4% of total
arrests (66)
13 arrests
• 6% of total arrests
• 19.7% of violent
offence arrests
Year 2
220
62 arrests
• 28.2% of total
arrests (62)
8 arrests
• 3.6% of total arrests
• 13% of violent offence
arrests
Through DCI, increase capacity of behavioral
health system to provide evidence based
treatments to address trauma
– 3 Intensive Learning Communities reaching over
90 clinicians.
– Increased Services at 2 Community Health
Centers.
• Focus on family engagement through a family partner
• Connection to a medical home and primary care
• Sustainability
Primary prevention through:
– Promoting healthy relationships among youth
through peer leadership.
– Universal Social Emotional Learning Curriculums
• Will reach 23 schools with the Open Circles curriculum
• 7,000 students grades Kindergarten through 5th grade
• Training 750 educators
Develop healthy relationships now to prevention
future generations’ exposure to violence.
Opportunities and Next Directions
• Federal partnerships benefiting local level
strategies
• Leveraging non-traditional funding streams