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Infrastructure, Collaboration, and Partnerships

• Multidisciplinary (medicine, sociology, psychology, epidemiology)
• Investigators more participatory evaluation focus.
• Internal steering committees are formed with community partners (Coaltion) and youth included.
• We have a solid relationship with the Metro Public Health Department, the Oasis Center (community organization that focuses on crisis and counseling services, leadership training, etc.), STARS (Students Taking a Right Stand; coordinates implementation of programs for students and families), and Alignment Nashville (coordinates services for students in the public school district)

What is the Coalition - The Nashville Community Coaltion for Youth Safety is a group of community members that will have the opportunity to contribute their expertise and experiences in order to ensure that the important research questions related to reducing violence among youth 10-24 years of age in Nashville/Davidson County, TN are thoroughly studied. Additionally, they are all committed to sharing the responsibility of decision making for all research, surveillance, programmatic and strategic planning activities for NUPACE.

How it got created - During the planning phase of developing a coalition, it became evident that many of the people and organizations that responded to the invitation to collaborate in this effort to prevent youth violence already work together through other coalitions and partnerships, including: Nashville Prevention Partnership (youth substance abuse), the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship (social justice, HIV/AIDS), the Peniel Initiative (crime victims services), United Way (planning), family resource centers (neighborhood-based services), the Neighborhoods Resource Center, Nashville Neighborhood Alliance, Metro Public Housing Department Resident Advisory Council, the Nashville Health Disparities Coalition, the Latino Health Coalition, Alignment Nashville, Tying Nashville Together, the National Urban League, etc. In addition, there are several standing youth councils, including the Mayor’s Youth Council, the Metro Public Health Youth Advisory Council, the OASIS Youth Council and the Dream Team Youth Coalition. All of these existing partnerships and coalitions have overlapping goals, activities, and target populations. Community participation has been incorporated into the overall structure of the NUPACE through its formal decision making processes. 

The NUPACE planning process has been organized into a Steering Committee and four cores: Administration, Research, Surveillance, and Communication & Dissemination. Membership in each of the Cores will be comprised of a mix of academic, public agency, faith and community NGOs, and youth participants from different disciplines and service areas of health and human services, as well as from different communities. This cross-cutting membership provides a wide knowledge base and set of experiences to address the problem of youth violence. To this extent, the input of public agencies, community representatives and youth will have an equal voice in determining the research, program, surveillance, and communication and dissemination agendas of the NUPACE as academic faculty and investigators. 

While the NUPACE is concerned with prevention of youth violence in all of Nashville/Davidson County, it recognizes that a disproportionate burden of the negative outcomes associated with it are borne by low income and minority youth living in the core urban area of Nashville. This is reflected in the map of 2005 total homicides and youth homicides (ages 10-24) for Nashville/Davidson County, which shows that all youth homicides occurred within a narrow band that runs from North/Northeast Nashville, including the central city extending through south/southwest Nashville (the community of Antioch). North Nashville is predominantly African American while the Antioch area of south Nashville is largely Latino. These and other data on nonfatal intentional injuries and risk community risk and protective factors will be used to target communities that will be prioritized in our initial efforts. 

The NUPACE will utilize a community based participatory research approach (CBPR). CBPR in public health research is a partnership approach that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research process. A CBPR approach is not without its unique set of challenges. Participants are from different professions and backgrounds; they use different vocabularies, adhere to different theoretical models; they have different functions; and they employ different toolkits in talking about youth violence. In addition, competition for scarce resources, or the anticipation of potential resources also can create barriers to organizations working together. This approach, while timely initially, creates the basis for long-term collaboration by building trust, strengthening knowledge about what other organizations do, and creating a shared vision and determination. The social reality of those who live in poor, urban, predominantly minority communities is shaped by differences of cultures, poverty, class, and racism, and constrained by the social, educational, and economic expectations, institutions and opportunities found in inner-city neighborhoods. NUPACE partners will have the opportunity to contribute their expertise and experiences and to share the responsibility of decision making for all research, surveillance, and programmatic and strategic planning activities. Involving community as a partner will help ensure that the important research questions are thoroughly studied in our NUPACE.