Advance Peace Demonstration Field Experiment: Are Peacemaker Fellowships That Incorporate New Innovations and Are Implemented with Fidelity Effective at Reducing Cyclical & Retaliatory Gun Violence?

The Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) is the applicant for the “Advance Peace Demonstration Field Experiment: Are Peacemaker Fellowships That Incorporate New Innovations and Are Implemented with Fidelity Effective at Reducing Cyclical & Retaliatory Gun Violence?” project. This project falls under Category 2 (C-BJA-2024¬00071-PROD). The budget request is $1,000,000. The purpose is to assess the impact of an innovative CVIPI strategy, called a Peacemaker Fellowship, on reducing cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in targeted urban cities using a quasi-experimental design that will compare intervention cohorts from three cities with matched control cohorts from the same cities. Goals and activities are to implement a Demonstration Field Experiment to determine if Fellowships implemented with high levels of fidelity are effective in reducing cyclical and retaliatory gun violence among Fellowship participants who are active firearm offenders and who have avoided the reach of law enforcement. This will be accomplished by engaging at least 100 Fellows who are active firearm offenders in the Fellowship and offering them evidence-based practices (street outreach, mentoring, intensive transformative mentoring, life skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, and subsidized employment) and touchpoints (life management action plan goals, daily check-ins, social services navigation, transformative travel, elders circle, internship opportunities, and life map action plan milestone allowance). The Fellowship recruits the most lethal individuals at the center of gun violence in a community, provides them with seven-days-a-week mentoring and supportive relationships using street outreach workers, and delivers services and supports to them during an 18-month program. Project partners are the Center for Global Healthy Cities at UC Berkeley, Advance Peace, and three organizations implementing the Peacemaker Fellowship in Pomona, California; Stockton, California; and Fort Worth, Texas. Outcomes and products to be shared include a final research report that identifies research findings, presentation at a national criminal justice and/or public health conference, published article in peer-reviewed criminal justice and/or public health journal, and submission of research findings to the National Institute of Justice’s CrimeSolutions clearinghouse. Beneficiaries are individuals actively involved in cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in Pomona, California; Stockton, California; and Fort Worth, Texas.

The project will include community-based activities (59%) and research activities (41%).