Promoting Health Equity - A Resource to Help Communities Address ...

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18 CASE 3STUDY Project BRAVE: Building and Revitalizing an Anti-Violence Environment 44 Who we are: Project BRAVE is a school-based intervention developed by Students at the Center, a school-based organization; the Crescent City Peace Alliance, a community-based organization; and a researcher and students from Tulane University School of Public Health to reduce youth violence in New Orleans, Louisiana. What we want to achieve: To reduce the social determinants of violence by changing learning and teaching methods in elementary, middle, and high schools. What we are doing: Project BRAVE classes begin with a “story circle,” where small groups of students tell stories about violence they have experienced or seen. After sharing these stories orally, the students write them down and edit them. In our pilot, a public health researcher helped the students critically analyze their experiences and identify the social determinants of violence in their community. This analysis, based on a technique known as “conscientization” or raising critical awareness, involved a number of steps over several weeks. Relevant themes that emerged during this process included the importance of attending school and increasing the level of social support among students. Participating students came to see themselves as agents of change in the school and in the community with the ability to motivate others to implement solutions to violence. A fnal theme was that heightened awareness of violence could help prevent it in the future. Artists worked with students to translate their stories into a play that communicated the importance of reducing youth violence to neighborhood members, organizations, and other key stakeholders who might have a role in addressing such violence. Their play, “Inhaling Brutality, Exhaling Peace,” told a student’s story about a murder witnessed at a local park. One of the performances was conducted in the neighborhood next to the park where the events in the story took place. The discussion that followed led some neighbors to express shock at what was happening in their neighborhood park and to begin organizing community efforts to prevent further violence.
How we will know we are making a difference: At the end of the semester, project team members tape-recorded group interviews with students, analyzed and coded the content of the interviews, and used these data to identify various themes related to social determinants of violence (e.g., school attendance, social support, self-perceptions as change agents). Interest in the Project BRAVE class has led to an increase in school attendance, an important social determinant of violence and community health. Future evaluation efforts will include school and community surveys to measure change in studentrelated variables, such as school attachment and social support, and communitylevel variables, such as collective effcacy and community empowerment. Finally, we will monitor longer-term outcomes such as crime rates, to assess the project’s impact on the overall community. Summing up: Project BRAVE builds on existing relationships among schools, community members, community-based organizations, and local researchers to support already-established opportunities for students to share their experiences and to participate in community change to reduce violence. Post–Hurricane Katrina update: Despite the devastation of schools and neighborhoods caused by Hurricane Katrina, the work of Project BRAVE is being continued by Students at the Center. The group is teaching writing classes at McMain Secondary School and in the Douglass community using BRAVE materials and methods, working to publish a collection of student writing on violence, and participating in many efforts to “watchdog” the rebuilding process as it pertains to public schools. Many young people are working to improve education as New Orleans rebuilds. How to reach us: Jim Randels Students at the Center (SAC) (504) 982-0399 jimrandelssac@earthlink.net What we are learning: We are learning that Project Brave is an effective approach for addressing youth violence but that there are many challenges. 44 These include poor attendance by many students and minimal time available for “special” courses. Securing funding has also been challenging because funders often require school-based projects to use standardized curricula. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding, Project BRAVE is no longer in existence. 19
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Page 3 and 4: Promoting Health Equity A Resource
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents Introduction p.4
Page 7 and 8: Participants October 28-29, 2003 So
Page 9 and 10: Infant mortality Table 1.1: Example
Page 11 and 12: Access to resources Income Housing
Page 13 and 14: Learning from doing Chapter 2 of th
Page 16 and 17: 14 1CASE STUDY Who we are: A black
Page 18 and 19: 16 CASE Poder es Salud 2STUDY (Powe
Page 22 and 23: 20 C ASE 4S TUD Y Healthy Eating an
Page 24 and 25: 22 5CASE STUDY Taking Action: The B
Page 26 and 27: 24 6CASE STUDY The Community Action
Page 28 and 29: 7CASE STUDY 26 New Deal for Communi
Page 30 and 31: 28 8CASE STUDY From Neurons to King
Page 32 and 33: 30 9CASE STUDY The Delta Health Cen
Page 34 and 35: 32 Developing a Social Determinants
Page 36 and 37: SECTION 1 34 Creating Your Partners
Page 38 and 39: 36 PERSPECTIVES — Community Yvonn
Page 40 and 41: 38 MOVING FORWARD Sample Partnershi
Page 42 and 43: 40 Building partnership capacity Re
Page 44 and 45: SECTION 2 42 Focusing Your Partners
Page 46 and 47: 44 2. Talk to other community partn
Page 48 and 49: 46 > Qualitative interviews or focu
Page 50 and 51: 48 Photovoice Community audits Heal
Page 52 and 53: 50 7. With information gathered and
Page 54 and 55: 52 ExAMPLE FROM THE FIELD Creating
Page 56 and 57: SECTION 3 54 Assessing community ca
Page 58 and 59: 56 ExAMPLE FROM THE FIELD Mapping C
Page 60 and 61: SECTION 4 58 Once your partnership
Page 62 and 63: 60 ExAMPLE FROM THE FIELD Selecting
Page 64 and 65: 62 MOVING FORWARD Community Develop
Page 66 and 67: 64 Social action What is social act
Page 68 and 69: 66 When working to incorporate chan
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68 Be sure to frame your message in
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70 Policy and environmental change
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72 MOVING FORWARD Ways to Support P
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74 ExAMPLE FROM THE FIELD Selecting
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Before writing your action plan, yo
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Continually monitor your group’s
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SECTION 6 82 It is important to inc
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84 MOVING FORWARD Evaluating Your P
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86 It is important to note that mos
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SECTION 7 88 Eliminating inequities
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90 Closing Thoughts Since the Socia
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92 Suggested Readings and Resources
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94 Miringhoff M, Miringhoff, ML. Th
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96 James SA. Confronting the moral
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98 Partnerships Alter C, Hage J. Or
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100 Wolff T, Kaye G. From the Groun
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102 Kingsley GT. Building and Opera
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104 Stokols D. Translating social e
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106 References 1. Institute of Medi
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108 34. Hertzman C, Power C, Matthe
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110 71. Granner ML, Sharpe PA. Eval
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