Violence Prevention - HEAL

The Violence Prevention – Healthy Eating, Active Living initiative was launched in January 2010, to explore the effectiveness of community-based strategies for violence prevention (VP) and the promotion of healthy eating and active living (HEAL). This is achieved by creating opportunities for advocates and practitioners from various fields to collaborate. The 20-month initiative is funding six communities across the country to establish a community partnership comprised of an organization engaged in active living and/or healthy eating; an organization focused on preventing violence; a public health department; and one youth or young professional.

Each community partnership received up to $20,000 to support initial planning efforts including strategic planning. An additional $60,000 was provided to assist in the implementation of their project over an 18-month period. Each community piloted one to two complementary and/or joint strategies locally.

As well as implementing their respective strategies, the communities participated in a learning community where they have shared their experiences and best practices as their work moved forward.

At the end of project, each community will provide a profile that will include lessons learned from their PV-HEAL partnership and information about their strategy development/implementation process.

The six communities selected were:

Oakland, California

Detroit, Michigan

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Louisville, Kentucky

Denver, Colorado

Chula Vista, California