Program: Preventing Violence Affecting Young Lives (PREVAYL)

Overview

In March 2021, CDC announced funding to address multiple forms of violence impacting adolescents and young adults in communities with high rates of violence.

PREVAYL funding recipients will address youth violence, teen dating violence, other adverse childhood experiences, and conditions that put communities at greater risk for violence.

Recipients will also address risk factors such as social determinants of health, including concentrated poverty, limited educational or employment opportunities, and racial inequity, to prevent violence.

PREVAYL builds on the accomplishments and outcomes of a previous program, Preventing Teen Dating and Youth Violence by Addressing Shared Risk and Protective Factors. Please see CDC archive for more information about the previous program.

Goals

PREVAYL recipients will complete activities including:

• Implementing programs, policies, and practices, including social marketing or public education campaigns, using evidence-based violence prevention strategies and approaches from CDC's Prevention Resources for Action, formerly known as, "technical packages," to address the intersection between violence, social determinants of health and racial inequity.
• Creating or enhancing a jurisdictional violence prevention strategic plan that includes multiple forms of violence impacting youth.
• Developing and implementing an evaluation plan to measure implemented strategy effectiveness.
• Developing a sustainability plan to ensure recipients can continue work long term.
• Participating in a multi-sector coalition to support increased violence prevention collaboration across sectors.

Funding recipients

Funding recipients include:

• Alaska Department of Health.
• Boston Public Health Commission.
• Minneapolis Department of Neighborhood Safety.
• County of Monterey Department of Health.
• Georgia Department of Public Health.
• Linn County Public Health.
• Multnomah County Health Department.
• Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition.

Strategies

PREVAYL recipients will implement complementary, evidence-based violence prevention strategies at the community and societal levels of the social-ecological model.

These strategies include:

• Community-level strategies focusing on characteristics in settings including schools, workplaces and neighborhoods that increase the risk of or protect people from violence. These characteristics can be social, economic, and environmental.
• Societal-level strategies focusing on the broad societal factors that create a climate where violence is encouraged or inhibited, such as norms or policies.