We are so thrilled to put the Violence Prevention Navigation Framework out into the world! This was a labor of love with our dear friends from Muflehun. VPNF leverages state of the art technology to seamlessly harvest big data sets that represent localized risk and protective factors for gun violence prevention at community and society levels. We know many local and state leaders WANT to prevent gun violence but also know first hand that the desire alone not only won't get the job done, a heedless effort can end up causing more harm while wasting public dollars. VPNF first gives you comprehensive data across sectors to shine the light on the specific factors that are having the greatest impact on local violence. Then, with the clear lens provided by that foundational quantitative data, VPNF then turns to the most important perspective-- the people perspective. To uncover why and how those factors grew into what they are, VPNF gathers crucial qualitative data from the people who know best-- community members, service providers, government agencies, and so on. With both forms of data collected, VPNF then provides local leaders with a prioritized list of factors that they can use to begin their strategies to address these root causes. These primary prevention efforts would not only lessen the likelihood of future violence in the long-term, but VPNF also intentionally and rightfully puts the onus back on governments and elected officials to undo harm and inequities caused by past (and sometimes current) policies and practices rather than blaming and punitively punishing people and communities. We would love to bring VPNF to your city, county or state! Feel free to reach out, and you can find more information here: https://lnkd.in/eF-Gg73C
June is Gun Prevention Awareness Month. This blog highlights the Violence Prevention Navigation Framework, a novel approach to addressing gun violence that helps leaders make informed, strategic decisions. Using big data and knowledge from local government and community-based partners, VPNF helps leaders understand the causes of violence and develop tailored prevention strategies to make communities safer. Read more about this comprehensive, data-driven initiative of the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center: https://bit.ly/3zhMl1A #GunViolenceAwarenessMonth