A Comprehensive technical package for the prevention of youth violence and associated risk behaviors

This technical package represents a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence to help communities and states sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to prevent youth violence and its consequences. These strategies include promoting family environments that support healthy development; providing quality education early in life; strengthening youth\ue2\u20ac\u2122s skills; connecting youth to caring adults and activities; creating protective community environments; and intervening to lessen harms and prevent future risk. The strategies represented in this package include those with a focus on preventing youth violence from happening in the first place as well as approaches to reduce the immediate and long-term harms of youth violence in order to prevent future violence. Preventing youth violence requires multiple, complementary strategies, and those outlined in the package reflect the mature research-base about how to strengthen individual\ue2\u20ac\u2122s skills and relationships to prevent youth violence.1,2 It also includes promising evidence about ways to address broader community issues that affect the likelihood of youth violence.This package supports CDC\ue2\u20ac\u2122s STRYVE initiative for preventing youth violence. In particular, this package articulates a select set of strategies and specific approaches to achieve STRYVE\ue2\u20ac\u2122s vision of safe and healthy youth achieving their full potential (see box to the right). Commitment, cooperation, and leadership from numerous sectors, including public health, education, justice, health care, social services, business, and government, can bring about the successful implementation and long-term impact of this package.Suggested citation: David-Ferdon, C., Vivolo-Kantor, A. M., Dahlberg, L. L., Marshall, K. J., Rainford, N. & Hall, J. E. (2016). A Comprehensive Technical Package for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Associated Risk Behaviors. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.AK2016yv-technicalpackage.pdfAcknowledgements -- Partner Review -- Overview -- Promote Family Environments that Support Healthy Development -- Provide Quality Education Early in Life -- Strengthen Youth\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Skills -- Connect Youth to Caring Adults and Activities -- Create Protective Community Environments -- Intervene to Lessen Harms and Prevent Future Risk -- Benefits Relative to Costs -- Sector Involvement -- Monitoring and Evaluation -- Conclusion -- References -- Appendix: Summary of Strategies and Approaches to Prevent Youth Violence