Forging Hopeful Futures: A Racial and Gender-Justice Program to Reduce Youth Violence

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In response to RFA-CE-22-005, this proposal addresses Objective One: Effectiveness research to evaluate innovative approaches to reducing community violence and racial/ethnic inequities in risk for community violence. Racially and ethnically diverse youth and youth residing in neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage disproportionately bear the burden of violence. Drawing upon a robust body of scholarship and programming (especially in international settings), and applying an intersectional lens, youth violence can be understood in the context of gender inequities (e.g., adherence to rigid masculinity norms), economic inequities (e.g., unemployment), and race inequities (e.g., racism and discrimination). Chronic, repeated exposure to early trauma and adversity (including violence), persistent experiences of bias-based discrimination, and lack of economic opportunities can impede children’s healthy development and increase the likelihood of both violence victimization and perpetration. Yet few community-driven approaches to violence in the US seek to simultaneously intervene on gender socialization and unequal power dynamics. Programming that explicitly takes into account these intersections and supports youth from diverse backgrounds to address gender-based and structural inequities is both theoretically and empirically novel. The youth empowerment intervention to be refined and evaluated, Forging Hopeful Futures, will combine economic justice content from job readiness training, racial and gender justice content from gender-transformative programming, and leadership building as a novel multi-level violence prevention intervention. Near program conclusion, youth will be connected with employment opportunities and encouraged to continue participation in social change efforts, with scaffolding offered through community organizations and mentors in each neighborhood. We will conduct a community- partnered cluster randomized trial in 16 neighborhoods impacted by structural inequities and high levels of community violence in Pittsburgh, PA and urban Washington D.C. and Maryland metro areas. Aim 1 will evaluate effectiveness of Forging Hopeful Futures (intervention) compared to wellness check-ins (control) among 14- to 19-year-old youth to decrease self-reported use of physical fighting and threat/injury with a weapon (primary outcome) and multiple related forms of violence (i.e., physical, sexual, and emotional relationship abuse, sexual violence, bullying). Aim 2 will examine mechanisms through which the intervention creates impact and how pre-intervention risk and protective factors moderate intervention effects on multiple forms of violence. Guided by the RE-AIM framework, Aim 3 will examine implementation processes that facilitate intervention acceptability, reach, integration, fidelity, and engagement as well as costs associated with intervention implementation across neighborhoods. Results expected to emerge from this rigorous effectiveness and implementation evaluation will expand our repertoire of effective interventions to address racial, and gender, and economic inequities and reduce youth violence.