The University of Chicago Medicine Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem Collaborative: Hospital-Based Violence Interventions and Community Violence Interventions" - This proposal aims to use a design that features a comprehensive and collaborative approach to injury prevention that prioritizes victim advocacy and case management through the UCM VRP model along with a subcontract with Metropolitan Family Services (MFS) as the organizing community violence intervention partnership to enlist local street outreach, victim advocates and case managers on behalf of this model. This multidisciplinary approach is needed to address social determinants of health and structural characteristics that often provide the context for interpersonal violence reinjury (Adams, Arabian, Edwards, & Tinkoff, 2020; Rosenblatt, Joseph, Derchert, Duncan, Joseph, Stewart, et al., 2019). The partnering agencies, University of Chicago Medicine and Metropolitan Family Services, are committed to prevention efforts to benefit the populations living and working in their collective service areas. Our programmatic focus will be the following zip codes: 60619, 60620, 60621, 60617, and 60649, which encompass the Englewood (Public Equity) and South Deering (Claretian Associates) community areas. Through the proposed design, our inpatient crisis intervention specialist and outpatient case management team will work shoulder to shoulder with our Community Violence Intervention partners to execute the core functions of case management: assessment, planning, linking, and monitoring (Wood & Tully, 2006). This model will strengthen the collaboration and coordination of victim services and case management to prevent re-injury and connect survivors of violence to meaningful opportunities to support their comprehensive care. UCM’s model is rooted in collaboration. Collaboration with community violence intervention organizations and community-based organizations has been essential to share best practices and inform a collective understanding of factors associated with comprehensive recovery for violence survivors. UCM’s VRP works closely with Metropolitan Family Services, Public Equity, and Claretian Associates as a member of Communities Partnering for Peace (CP4P) within the Englewood and South Deering neighborhoods. Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), convened by Metropolitan Family Services, is a framework that provides a comprehensive, long-term approach to reducing violence and gang activity among the individuals and communities it serves. UCM’s Violence Recovery Program provides critical hospital- and community-based services within the CP4P ecosystem.
