New Orleans' Successes and Challenges in Implementing a Comprehensive Approach to Violence

• In Event: Roundtable: The Health Approach to Violence Prevention

Abstract

In this presentation, the speaker will discuss the Cure Violence model as it was implemented in New Orleans, LA and in particular how the program interacted with and benefited the police. The Central City community of New Orleans, where Cure Violence program was implemented, has had large drops in violence including more than 200 days without a homicide or shooting. The speaker will examine the components of the approach to achieving these large drops - including Cure Violence work, police strategies, and how the two were able to work in unison. This presentation will highlight the successes and challenges of implementing a comprehensive approach to violence that is inclusive of all sectors. The components of a healthy relationship between Cure Violence and police will be examined including helping to identify those at highest risk for violence, both parties attending regular meetings, providing data to and notifications of shootings to health workers, participating in community events, and seeing health workers as partners in the prevention of violence. A critical component to this partnership is maintaining confidentiality for health workers, which is based on understanding the essential role that health workers play. The challenges of this requirement will be discussed. Cure Violence workers are making the force's job easier– they are credible messengers who are reformed from a previous life and have shifted norms within NOPD to have a better understanding of violence.

Author

• Ronal Serpas, Loyola University New Orleans