Session: Advancing Culturally Responsive, Community-Led Approaches to Firearm Violence Research and Practice (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

The prevalence of firearm violence in Black and Latinx urban communities is rooted in poverty and trauma, which in the United States, are undergirded by racial capitalism and white supremacy . Recently the Grand Challenges for Social Work announced a new grand challenge to "Prevent Gun Violence", in which community-based strategies are briefly mentioned . Community-based programs, particularly those employing street-level outreach strategies, are well-documented as a culturally responsive, critical strategy for reaching marginalized and disenfranchised populations within these communities. In particular, Community Violence Intervention (CVI) is an effective strategy to reduce urban firearm violence among people and places at disproportionate risk of violent victimization . CVI programs are led by credible messengers, community leaders who leverage past experiences of violence exposure and/ or systems involvement to proactively engage those at highest risk of violence victimization or perpetration within their communities.

This symposium provides a thorough overview of research and evaluation on community-led, culturally responsive strategies to reduce firearm violence. The papers included in the symposium highlight original, empirical research examining a) the perspectives of CVI workers and their interface with law enforcement in violence intervention work b) perspectives of Black and Latinx emerging adults and the mental health impact of perceived racism-based police encounters c) how CVI workers collaborate with researchers to inform the evaluation of hospital-based violence intervention programs, and d) culturally responsive coping mechanisms among African, Caribbean, and Black homicide survivors in Canada. The studies engage research methodologies inclusive of community advisory boards, in-depth qualitative interviews, cognitive interviews, community-engaged research methods, and peer-led focus groups. Evident in the scope of the papers is an emphasis on collaboration between directly impacted individuals, community residents, and a broader set of community safety entities.

Each of the papers included in the symposium utilize a collaborative, community-based participatory research framework that prioritizes the perspective of Black and Latinx community residents with greatest proximity to firearm violence. Furthermore, the research overviewed in the symposium illustrates how to center racial equity in bridging intervention research and evaluation with direct practice. For example, the research on CVI workers' interface with law enforcement was utilized to develop an on-line toolkit to assist nonprofit organizations in advancing trauma-responsive practices in support of street outreach workers. The research on the coping mechanisms of African, Caribbean, and Black homicide survivors was used to develop a Neighborhood Ambassadors Program where individuals with lived experience of traumatic loss proactively reach out to other survivors in their community to offer support and assistance. Collectively, the symposium informs future directions for social work's newest grand challenge based on community-rooted, culturally responsive social work practice among groups disproportionately impacted by firearm violence.