Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116585

Anthony Smith¹, Brent Decker, MPH¹, and Gary Slutkin, MD². (1) School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 W. Taylor, Chicago, IL 60612, (312) 996-1150, smithad@uic.edu, (2) University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago Project for Violence Prevention/CeaseFire, 1603 W. Taylor, Chicago, IL 60612

The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention's (CPVP) main objective is to work with community and government partners to stop the shooting in Chicago. In 2004 there were 449 homicides in Chicago. It is estimated that 75% of the victims and perpetrators were young Latino or African American males. The average Chicago homicide perpetrator has eight prior felony convictions while victims have nine (Chicago Police Department). In an effort to reach those most likely to suffer the deleterious effects of engaging in violence, CPVP has created an outreach program in 8 Chicago neighborhoods and 3 other cities in Illinois. The outreach workers are charged with making contact with youth most at risk for committing violence, for referring youth to positive alternatives, mediating conflicts on the spot to prevent violence, and organizing community members to respond when there are shootings. During 2004, 90 outreach workers worked with over 1,300 clients, meeting with them in an informal counseling setting 10,698 times, performing 7,467 home visits, appearing in court 173 times and appearing in school 681 times on behalf of their clients. The average age of these youth was 19.5 years old. Outreach staff made over 2,000 referrals for services. From these referrals, 200 gained employment, 115 were enrolled in school/GED programs, and 30% of clients who had illegal employment began seeking legal employment. Additionally, the outreach staff mediated 155 high-risk conflicts and implemented late night targeted outreach during peak day, time, and locations of shootings (total of 1,012 person-nights) during the twelve-month period.

Learning Objectives:

•
• To examine whether outreach workers are engaging those most likely to be involved in violence, and understand what services are being provided. •
• To understand the nature of informal counseling performed by outreach workers in trying to encourage at risk youth to seek positive alternatives to violence.

Keywords: Violence Prevention, Outreach Programs

Related Web page: www.ceasefirechicago.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.