Research Practice Partnership to Address Trauma and Promote Wellness Among Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Workers in Chicago

Recent research reveals alarmingly high levels of exposure to violence and secondary traumatic stress among Community Violence Intervention (CVI) workers in Chicago (Hureau, 2022). CVI workers – who are selected in part for their lived experiences and proximity to those at the highest risk of gun violence – bear a dual burden of exposure to high levels of violence themselves and secondarily through their clients. As gun violence persists across the country, there is an urgent need to address the mental health and well-being of these essential violence prevention workers. A healthy CVI workforce is critical to building a strong CVI infrastructure that can effectively reduce gun violence in U.S. cities. One Chicago-based CVI organization has taken up this call to action through the development of a comprehensive Staff Wellness Initiative that is being implemented, developed, and evaluated in deep engagement with research partners at Northwestern University.

This presentation will describe an emerging collaboration between The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) and The Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science (CORNERS) at Northwestern University aimed at the co-development of (a) a comprehensive understanding of the experiences, mental health needs, and impact of trauma on CVI workers; (b) a responsive, holistic intervention that effectively addresses trauma and promotes wellness at INVC; and (c) a process evaluation that documents the development and implementation of the Wellness Initiative and the broader research practice partnership.

While this work is still young, several core building blocks define this successful research practice partnership. First, this project starts with relationship- and trust-building between practitioners and researchers by embedding research team members as participant observers in meetings of INVC’s Wellness Committee since its inception. Second, this project acknowledges the collective and equal value of practitioner-generated and researcher-generated knowledge through shared learning and the integration of findings from both INVC’s organizational needs assessment and CORNERS’ groundbreaking Violence Intervention Workers Study. Third, the project is partnership-driven; the research design evolves through ongoing, open communication and dialogue between researchers and practitioners to ensure the research is responsive and adaptive to the needs of the practitioner.

Research practice partnerships focused on the co-development of knowledge and solutions are critical to effectively tackling complex social challenges such as gun violence and can play a key role in better understanding and addressing trauma, and promoting wellness, among CVI workers. Ultimately, this research-practice partnership will co-develop a series of best practices and scalable strategies for other CVI organizations and CVI leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders looking to invest in the wellness of this essential violence prevention workforce.