Gun Violence
TRUsted rEsidents and Housing Assistance to decrease Violence Exposure in New Haven
Funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (2022-2027)
Yale University is partnering with the Urban League of Southern Connecticut and Clifford Beers Community Care Center to conduct a research study to help those formerly involved in the justice system and their families secure and maintain stable housing and provide access to mental health services.
Having partnered on community-engaged research since 2013 with the co-creation of the New Haven Community Resilience Teams in two socially vulnerable New Haven neighborhoods and convening diverse stakeholders across the city with a role and interest in reducing gun violence through the Community Resilience Steering Committee, TRUE HAVEN continues that work with a multi-level, multi-component, assets-based intervention to increase the stability, wealth, and well-being of neighborhoods affected by gun violence by:
- Setting up a citywide community stakeholder-led governance structure to oversee the program and identify and address racist policies
- Increasing housing stability by enrolling 400 families affected by incarceration each year in a program that couples comprehensive financial education with rental assistance or down-payment and loan assistance
- Providing greater support for mental health and well-being by training trusted community members (e.g., barbers, educators, faith leaders, youth mentors) in trauma-informed counseling techniques to recognize and support those affected by the trauma of gun violence.
We will target implementation of this intervention package to individuals and families affected by incarceration residing within six New Haven neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence. We will test the effectiveness of TRUE HAVEN within specified neighborhoods using a step wedge design, while also identifying intervention facilitators and barriers and project long-term outcomes using a simulation model. This study will yield a roadmap for how cities can effectively and systematically tackle structural racism to reduce gun violence and improve community health and well-being.
People
Collaborators
Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
VP, Clinical & Community Based Services, Clifford Beers Guidance Clinic
Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics; Director, Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS); Professor of Statistics and Data Science; Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine); Assistant Director, Global Oncology, Yale Cancer Center
Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Assistant Professor of Biostatistics; Director, Cardiovascular Medicine Analytics Center (CMAC)
Gun Violence Publications
- Trusted residents and housing assistance to decrease violence exposure in New Haven (TRUE HAVEN): a strengths-based and community-driven stepped-wedge intervention to reduce gun violence.Tong G, Spell VT, Horton N, Thornhill T, Keene D, Montgomery C, Spiegelman D, Wang EA, Roy B. BMC Public Health. 2023 Aug 14; 2023 Aug 14. PMID: 37580653.
- "We know what's going on in our community": A qualitative analysis identifying community assets that deter gun violence.Parsons A, Harvey TD, Andrade SD, Horton N, Brinkley-Rubenstein L, Wood G, Holaday LW, Riley C, Spell VT, Papachristos AV, Wang EA, Roy B. SSM Qual Res Health. 2023 Jun; 2023 Mar 28. PMID: 37483654.
- Building community resilience to prevent and mitigate community impact of gun violence: conceptual framework and intervention design.Wang EA, Riley C, Wood G, Greene A, Horton N, Williams M, Violano P, Brase RM, Brinkley-Rubinstein L, Papachristos AV, Roy B. BMJ Open. 2020 Oct 10; 2020 Oct 10. PMID: 33040016.
- Preparing for Disaster: a Cross-Sectional Study of Social Connection and Gun Violence.Riley C, Roy B, Harari N, Vashi A, Violano P, Greene A, Lucas G, Smart J, Hines T, Spell S, Taylor S, Tinney B, Williams M, Wang EA. J Urban Health. 2017 Oct. PMID: 28116587.
Past Projects
Building Resilient Neighborhoods and Positive Social Networks to Prevent Gun Violence
Funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (2016-2021)
The overall objective of this study was to identify data-driven targets and asset-based strategies for interventions to mitigate the effects of gun violence in New Haven, CT. The long-term goal was to develop, in partnership with community members, an approach to creating effective, durable, and strengths-based interventions to mitigate the impacts of gun violence that can be scaled and tailored to violence-endemic communities across the country. We mapped social networks of those engaged in violence and performed a series of in-depth interviews with residents of high-violence neighborhoods to elicit community assets that may prevent gun violence or mitigate its effects. This data collection and analysis was completed in preparation for designing and testing community-based interventions that may reduce the incidence of gun violence and mitigate its long-term health impacts.