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

In response to NOT-MD-20-022 (Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Competitive and AdministrativeSupplements for Community Interventions to Reduce the Impact of COVID-19 on Health Disparity and OtherVulnerable 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 forbehavioral supports for youth and adults in the context of COVID-19. Residents in oppressed neighborhoodswho are predominantly Black and Latinx have increased vulnerability to COVID-19 and the economic andsocial consequences of public health mitigation measures. The pandemic has disrupted social supports andincreased social isolation among youth in these communities. This community-partnered, multi-levelintervention 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 reduceyouth violence in urban, racially-segregated neighborhoods. This intervention involves community membersand youth leaders assessing child and youth thriving in their neighborhood, using a community-developedChild/Youth Thriving Matrix tool to engage in structured dialogue on neighborhood transformation, racial andgender equity, youth engagement, and organizing for social change. Findings from discussions will informyouth engagement in racial and gender justice activities in the context of this pandemic and offer a prototypefor a community-level intervention to help mitigate the consequences of a pandemic, systemic racism, andstructural inequities. This proposed study will assess feasibility of this Child/Youth Thriving Matrix tool as acommunity-based, multi-level intervention to promote neighborhood resilience and prevent youth violence. InAim 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 atleast three areas of focus for enhancing child thriving). Two other matched neighborhoods will be offered anindividual mindfulness intervention as a control condition (final anticipated n = 80 participants/arm). Aim 2 willexplore appropriateness of measures to evaluate intervention effects on individual- and neighborhood-levelcollective efficacy, emotional well-being (including mental health and social isolation), and youth violence, inpreparation for a larger trial to test this community-level intervention. These research objectives build oninfrastructure of the parent study (Creating Peace: community-based youth violence prevention to addressracism and discrimination (R01MD013797, PI: Miller)). The goal of this urgent revision is to optimize acommunity-designed, community-level intervention to address structural inequities that have become all tooapparent during this pandemic with an emphasis on neighborhood strengths and building resilience.