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Evaluation Results of Youth Handgun Violence Prevention FeaturedThe summer 2006 issue of the New Directions in Evaluation journal featured an article on The Colorado Trust's Youth Handgun Violence Prevention and Intervention Initiative, written by evaluators Kirk Williams and Sabrina Arrendondo Mattson. This effort, an offshoot of The Trust's $8.9 million Violence Prevention Initiative, was implemented from 1999-2002 in three sites in Metro Denver. After a planning process where handgun violence and prevention literature was reviewed, intervention strategies were created and incorporated into the existing services of the three youth-serving agencies. Youth participants in the projects were surveyed throughout the project. Additionally, the evaluators conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with the project staff regarding challenges and lessons learned about this type of programming. While the results of the youth surveys did not show significant changes in behaviors toward handguns, the results of the qualitative component of the evaluation provide extensive lessons for community-based practitioners, funders and evaluators. These results are published in the article by Williams and Mattson titled Qualitative Lessons From A Community-Based Violence Prevention Project With Null Findings. For more information, contact Kirk Williams at the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies, University of California - Riverside, kirk.williams@ucr.edu. |
