Examining a Community Action Planning Process to Mobilize a Coalition to Prevent Youth Violence: A Case Study of the ThrYve Initiative

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, youth homicide is the third leading cause of death for all youth ages 10 to 24 and the leading cause of death for Black youth. Comprehensive community approaches may address risk factors across socio-ecological levels to prevent youth violence. Community coalitions can serve as a mechanism for implementing a comprehensive community approach. Based on the Framework for Collaborative Action and Community Engagement, when community partners initiate strategic collaborative action, they can initiate meaningful and sustainable change in their community. An empirical case study was conducted to examine the contributions of community action planning facilitated by a coalition on the implementation of community change (i.e., changes in program, practice, policy). Over the study period (2018-2022), the ThrYve coalition served as a multi-sectoral community coalition and implemented over 150 new or modified programs, policies, and practices to address youth violence in Kansas City, Kansas. During the study period, there were 77 partners of the coalition involving 14 sectors of the community. A social network analysis explored the growth of the coalition with 20 partners responding (across 14 sectors) to further examine the connectedness between partners and the structured alignment of a shared vision to reduce youth violence. The results support previous research on the utility of community coalitions and community action planning in addressing community-level concerns of social significance.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Thompson, Valerie Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Watson-Thompson, Jomella

• Behavioral sciences
• Behavioral psychology
• coalition
• collaboration
• community change
• community intervention
• violence prevention
• youth violence

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:19709

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/38432