Community Violence Reduction Initiative
Building off decades of community violence reduction work led by community members, practitioners, community-based organizations, universities, and government institutions in Allegheny County, the Department of Human Services (DHS) launched the Community Violence Reduction Initiative (CVRI) in 2023.
CVRI supports evidence-based, coordinated, and comprehensive public health approaches to reducing community violence both within and across highly impacted communities.
CVRI uses a public health approach to guide its focus and decision-making. This approach begins with using data to better understand the nature and scope of gun violence in Allegheny County and researching the risk factors that increase gun violence risk and protective factors that decrease it. Gun violence in Allegheny County is concentrated geographically, demographically, socially, and situationally, due to a series of complex, intersecting risk factors.
Building on this understanding, CVRI works to design, adopt, implement, and evaluate strategies aimed at reducing violence with a particular focus on the small number of people, groups, and places at highest risk of experiencing or being involved in community violence.
Learn more about CVRI’s work, including its public health approach, community partnerships and violence reduction strategies, in the full CVRI report(PDF, 4MB). To view the areas where CVRI programs are operating in Allegheny County, view the interactive map.
CVRI Focus Areas
Strategies to reduce gun violence tend to fall under three categories, many of which are informed by a disease control model.
Intervention
Intervention strategies focus on reducing harm where violence has already occurred or is highly likely. Programs include:
Street Outreach
Hospital-based Violence Intervention
Achieving Change through Transition Employment Services (ACTES)
Prevention
Prevention strategies focus on reducing risk factors before violence occurs. Programs include:
Targeted Prevention
Broad Prevention
Root Causes
These strategies focus on long-term change by addressing structural drivers of violence. Programs include:
TTA Partners
Training and technical assistance partners support government and community-based organizations in standing up new programs and initiatives, all with a focus on adhering to model fidelity. Partners include:
Coordination
Within areas highly impacted by community violence, ACDHS supports Community Quarterbacks who act as local backbone agencies in bringing together stakeholders to understand and address community violence, all with a particular focus on coordination, focus and resource sharing. CVRI’s Community Quarterbacks are:
Across highly impacted areas, CVRI coordinates efforts across neighborhood, municipal, and county systems to prevent and respond to shootings in real time using a countywide web-based real-time alert and coordination platform. ACDHS developed and supports the app that helps stop the cycle of retaliation across Allegheny County.
ACDHS also leads a weekly Countywide Shooting Review wherein representatives from Intervention, Prevention and Human Services teams from across the County come together across municipal lines to coordinate care, prevent retaliation and understand emerging trends, in addition to teams collaborating in other coordinated spaces to address community violence.
In partnership with stakeholders within and across highly impacted communities, ACDHS leads the Allegheny County Peace Collective (ACPC). ACPC is a space to understand and respond to gun violence trends across municipal lines, including working with other government institutions, community and economic development partners and advocacy groups to address root causes and transform communities highly impacted by disinvestment and gun violence.
Tools and Resources for CVRI Providers
The following tools are only available through provider logins and are not accessible to the public.
The following tools are available to the public and may also be useful to CVRI providers.
Understanding Violence Trends and Community Need
These publicly available dashboards and reports help inform CVRI’s work by providing data on violence trends and community needs.
Contact
For any questions, please email DHS-CVRI@alleghenycounty.us.