Prevent Violence and Build Trust in Los Angeles Communities Project

The goal of the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center Prevent Violence and Build Trust in LA Communities Project is to reduce risk and increase protective factors for violence in the communities of focus by strengthening a community-based coalition, implementing a violence reduction strategic plan based on a community needs assessment, and providing violently injured patients that present to the PHCMC emergency department or trauma unit with post-injury intervention. These goals will lessen harm and create linkages to comprehensive community-based services to reduce future risk. Successful intervention and trauma-informed care includes linkages to community resources, improves community health, and increases health equity by creating a safer community, reducing the barrier to the access and adoption of protective health practices.

This project will focus on violently injured patients aged 18 and over most impacted by violence and identified in the emergency department or trauma unit. The San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles is home to nearly 2.3 million people, with most of the population identifying as being persons of color (ACS 2015-2019, U.S. Census). In 2022, nearly 50 percent of our patients were covered by Medicaid or Medicaid HMO, and most uninsured patients have associated socioeconomic needs. The demographic profile in 2022 was 66.9 percent Hispanic or Latino overall, with a concentration of 77 percent Hispanic or Latino seen in the emergency department. These demographic groups are disproportionately associated with community violence.

Project activities will include increasing long-term victim participation in a social support network and revitalize the San Fernando Valley Violence Prevention Coalition (Coalition). The project will develop strategic partnerships between members of the Coalition to conduct a community violence assessment and develop a violence reduction strategic plan that includes an effort to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate project performance and quality indicators. Additionally, the project will implement short-term, crisis-driven hospital-based initiatives to lessen harm and create linkages to comprehensive community-based services to reduce future risk and long-term community-based initiatives to increase victim resilience.

Expected outcomes for the project include the creation of a diverse Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative team, a needs assessment that informs the violence reduction strategic plan, the collection and analysis of data related to community- and hospital-based interventions, dissemination of results through a web-based seminar, and reporting data required by the terms of this grant.