Urgent Revision to Creating Peace: community-level intervention to reduce youth violence (R01MD013797, PI: Miller)

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In response to NOT-MD-20-022 (Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Competitive and Administrative Supplements for Community Interventions to Reduce the Impact of COVID-19 on Health Disparity and Other Vulnerable Populations), this urgent competitive revision (PA-18-935) aims to evaluate a novel community- based multi-level intervention focused on child and youth thriving to respond to the pressing need for behavioral supports for youth and adults in the context of COVID-19. Residents in oppressed neighborhoods who are predominantly Black and Latinx have increased vulnerability to COVID-19 and the economic and social consequences of public health mitigation measures. The pandemic has disrupted social supports and increased social isolation among youth in these communities. This community-partnered, multi-level intervention engages supportive adults and youth to envision child/youth thriving to increase collective self- efficacy, reduce social isolation, promote emotional well-being among supportive adults and youth, and reduce youth violence in urban, racially-segregated neighborhoods. This intervention involves community members and youth leaders assessing child and youth thriving in their neighborhood, using a community-developed Child/Youth Thriving Matrix tool to engage in structured dialogue on neighborhood transformation, racial and gender equity, youth engagement, and organizing for social change. Findings from discussions will inform youth engagement in racial and gender justice activities in the context of this pandemic and offer a prototype for a community-level intervention to help mitigate the consequences of a pandemic, systemic racism, and structural inequities. This proposed study will assess feasibility of this Child/Youth Thriving Matrix tool as a community-based, multi-level intervention to promote neighborhood resilience and prevent youth violence. In Aim 1, we will evaluate feasibility of implementing Child/Youth Thriving Matrix within two neighborhoods (i.e., >80% retention of participants through all sessions; satisfaction scores > 4.0 (range 1-5); identification of at least three areas of focus for enhancing child thriving). Two other matched neighborhoods will be offered an individual mindfulness intervention as a control condition (final anticipated n = 80 participants/arm). Aim 2 will explore appropriateness of measures to evaluate intervention effects on individual- and neighborhood-level collective efficacy, emotional well-being (including mental health and social isolation), and youth violence, in preparation for a larger trial to test this community-level intervention. These research objectives build on infrastructure of the parent study (Creating Peace: community-based youth violence prevention to address racism and discrimination (R01MD013797, PI: Miller)). The goal of this urgent revision is to optimize a community-designed, community-level intervention to address structural inequities that have become all too apparent during this pandemic with an emphasis on neighborhood strengths and building resilience.