Street outreach workers an important tool for violence prevention and intervention
A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Injury Research and Policy describes how using street outreach workers is an effective strategy to reach and engage youth with the goal of violence prevention and intervention. Street outreach workers are typically members of the community who intervene to prevent conflict and retaliation, and in some programs, also connect individuals with needed services, such as housing and job training. While cities across the United States are utilising street outreach workers as part of their violence prevention programs, including CeaseFire in Chicago and Safe Streets in Baltimore, this is the first peer-reviewed study on a program to be published. This is also the first evaluation of this type of program in a smaller community; the researchers studied the street outreach workers program run by the United Teen Equality Centre (UTEC) in Lowell, Mass., a city of 105,167 residents north of...