Recorded presentation

Robert Cohen, PhD, Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Post Office Box 980489, Richmond, VA 23298-0489, Aleta Meyer, PhD, Psychology and Pediatrics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 304 W. Cary Street, PO Box 842008, Richmond, VA 23284-2008, 804-628-7233, ameyer@vcu.edu, Catherine Howard, PhD, Office of Provost, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 843062, Richmond, VA 23284-4062, and Torey Edmonds, Center for the Study and Prevention of Youth Violence, Virginia Commonwealth University, 304 W. Cary Street, PO Box 84208, Richmond, VA 23284-2008.

The Virginia Commonwealth University Center for the Study and Prevention of Youth Violence (CSPYV), a CDC funded Center of Excellence in Youth Violence, in collaboration with the Provost’s community partnership initiative, has been working for several years to engage the university with the City of Richmond in understanding and preventing the high incidence of youth violence in this urban setting. These efforts have culminated in the university being invited to become a major partner in the City Manager’s campaign to develop and implement a comprehensive crime reduction strategy. One goal of the partnership is to mobilize faculty, student and staff resources from all schools of this comprehensive urban university to provide expertise-based assistance to this community driven campaign. University faculty members participate on all of the planning subcommittees and have played a major role in developing the decision guidelines governing the planning process. Each subcommittee is required to demonstrate that their proposed solutions are evidence-based and provide a clear rationale for how their recommendations will contribute to the comprehensive strategy. CSPYV also works directly with grassroots groups in the community. This presentation will focus on how this partnership evolved, the issues that need to be addressed to achieve a successful city-university partnership, and the progress and problems experienced in mounting a comprehensive violence reduction strategy. Examples of how academic knowledge and methodologies can be incorporated into community violence prevention efforts will be given. How to best prepare faculty and community stakeholders for community-university collaborative endeavors will also be addressed.

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