Final Brave Space of 2024, New Resource on Medicaid for Violence Prevention, + More
The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention
The HAVI’s mission is to reduce violence, particularly in communities of color, by advancing HVIPs
Welcome, New HAVI Members!
The HAVI network continues to grow, and this month we welcomed 16 new HAVI members representing cities from across the United States and Toronto, Canada!
The new cohort is comprised of 14 hospital-based, hospital-linked, and hybrid violence intervention programs, along with two new organizational members who provide trauma-informed services in their communities. We are thrilled to welcome them to the HAVI and look forward to their participation in workgroups and other opportunities for networking and peer-to-peer learning.
Join us in welcoming our new members!
The membership application process will reopen in March 2025.
Final Brave Space of 2024
We invite all frontline workers to join us virtually this Thursday, November 7, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PT) for the final Brave Space meeting of 2024!
This session is intended to provide space to pour into each other after the election and as we prepare for the holiday season. There will be four workshops focused on such themes as self-care, boundary setting, and tools and tips for self-preservation. Attendees will have the opportunity to choose two of the four workshops to attend. All attendees will be entered into a raffle to win gift cards and other prizes!
Brave Space is open to all frontline violence intervention workers, whether employed at HAVI member organizations or not. Created by and for frontline workers, it is a space to come together and share, learn, heal and be brave.
Please register to attend. Brave Space takes place on Zoom, and you will receive a link to join the session upon registration. For questions, please contact Anna Thompson (annat@thehavi.org).
Apply to Join the HAVI Advisory Board
Apply to join the HAVI Advisory Board! We anticipate adding one or two new members in the spring of 2025 and encourage individuals with a variety of professional and lived experiences to apply, including those with experience in frontline violence intervention, public health, medicine, law, finance, and non-profit management.
The advisory board advises and oversees the activities of the HAVI with governance from our fiscal sponsor, Health Resources in Action (HRiA), and the HRiA Board of Directors. For more information or to apply, please see the application form, and visit our website to learn about the current members of our advisory board. The deadline to apply is Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
Introducing the Community Violence Intervention State Medicaid Resource Technical Hub
If you attended the recent White House briefing on Medicaid reimbursement for violence prevention services, you may have noticed it featured a new HAVI resource — the Community Violence Intervention State Medicaid Resource Technical Hub (CVI SMART Hub).
This comprehensive tool is designed to help advocates, government administrators, and community violence practitioners understand the current status of Medicaid funding for violence prevention efforts nationwide.
Please share the link with your networks and bookmark the webpage to stay up to date on the latest information on Medicaid for violence prevention services!
2024 HAVI Membership Survey
The HAVI’s 2024 membership survey is now live! Thank you to the programs who have already submitted it. A representative of your program should have received a Qualtrics link to the survey as well as a dedicated timeslot for support in completing it. Completing our yearly membership surveys allows us to:
Membership surveys are due five business days following your scheduled support timeslot. Please reach out to Janene Brown (janeneb@thehavi.org) if you have any questions.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Fall Video Series from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education: “Gun Violence is a Public Health Issue”
We all want a world free from gun violence, but it can be challenging to advance solutions when there are misconceptions about what causes it and what can be done to prevent it.
In recent months, the federal government has taken important steps to foster a better public understanding of gun violence — including the Surgeon General’s landmark release of an advisory on gun violence as a public health crisis, as well as executive actions by the White House. To build on these efforts to shift mindsets and prompt action, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education (powered by the HAVI) asked researchers, community leaders, and frontline violence prevention professionals: “Why is gun violence a public health issue, and why does this matter?”
Their responses are featured in a series of videos that shine a light on the causes of gun violence, its disproportionate impact on communities of color, and the health-focused strategies that can solve this crisis. Since October 1, the Center has been releasing two of these videos per week on the HAVI’s social media channels. If you’ve missed them, be sure to view, like, and share the videos that have posted to date:
Help us close out the series! The last three videos of this series will be posted on November 12, 14, and 19. Please follow us on your favorite social media platform (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, or Facebook), and like, comment, and repost these videos to help us replace harmful narratives about gun violence with helpful ones about how it can be prevented.
HAVI Advisory Board Member Elected to the National Academy of Medicine
HAVI board member Dr. Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) last month. Considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, election to NAM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Dr. Rogers was selected for his paradigm-shifting contributions to hospital-based violence intervention, including medical-legal partnerships that address the social drivers of violent trauma.
Dr. Rogers is an acclaimed trauma and critical care surgeon and public health expert who has served in leadership capacities at health centers across the country. His current roles at University of Chicago Medicine include serving as Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Founding Director of the Trauma Center, and Executive Vice President of Community Health Engagement.
Beyond trauma and surgical critical care, Dr. Rogers has been an advocate for treating intentional violence as a public health issue. In partnership with the Center for Community Health and Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he developed a violence intervention and prevention program that works to address the social factors that put patients at increased risk for trauma and mortality. He also helped to launch the Violence Recovery Program at University of Chicago Medicine.
We are grateful to Dr. Rogers for his significant contributions to the field and for his leadership on the HAVI advisory board!
2024 Marla Becker Scholarship
We are pleased to announce this year’s winner of the Marla Becker Scholarship — Journey 2 Healing at Antelope Valley Medical Center in Palmdale, California!
Journey 2 Healing is a partnership between Antelope Valley Partners for Health and H.E.L.P.E.R. Foundation, a community-based organization that specializes in implementing programs and services — including programs focused on violence reduction — to diverse groups with maximum efficiency and impact.
Created in 2011 to honor the HAVI’s founder, the Marla Becker Scholarship is awarded annually to a new or emerging HVIP. The team at Journey 2 Healing will have the opportunity to receive tailored training and technical assistance from an established HAVI member program during an in-person site visit and through virtual meetings.
Violence Prevention Professional Training in Maryland
During the week of October 21-25, the HAVI’s training and technical assistance team traveled to Baltimore to lead a violence prevention professional (VPP) certification training hosted by MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center. More than 25 frontline workers from HVIPs in Baltimore, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Indiana, and Washington, D.C., participated in the five-day, 35-hour training and became HAVI-certified VPPs.
The VPP training is the HAVI’s national training program for frontline violence intervention workers. Participants are trained to uphold national standards of practice and become certified VPPs. Through the training, participants meet and learn from national leaders in hospital-based violence intervention from across the country and gain access to a network of other VPPs. Additionally, in cities or states that provide financial reimbursement for violence prevention services — through Medicaid, for example — HAVI VPP certification typically satisfies regulatory reimbursement requirements.
To learn more about the HAVI’s VPP certification training, please visit our website.
In the News
In 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field
By Jennifer Mascia, Chip Brownlee, and Fairriona Magee of The Trace
October 4, 2024 — In 2019, in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Congress struck a bipartisan deal to begin allocating $25 million each year to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for gun violence research. The surge of federal dollars was cheered by scientists, who quickly began applying for funding and making up for lost time.
September marked four years since most of the first projects received grants. The Trace analyzed federal data to see how much funding has been doled out, how that money has been spent, and which institutions are getting the lion’s share. The data includes money awarded by the NIH, the CDC, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which account for the vast majority of federal gun violence research funding.
All told, at least $137.1 million in federal funding has flowed to gun violence research since 2020, accounting for 127 projects. The topics getting the most attention from researchers are the same ones that tend to garner the most public concern, including youth gun violence and gun suicide, The Trace’s analysis shows.