Project Description
In an effort to improve health outcomes for children, youth and families, the City of Salinas joined together with the Violent Injury Prevention Coalition (VIPC) and their foundation, Partners for Peace, to launch a community collaborative planning process. At the outset, the City acknowledged that, “There have been a variety of prevention strategies in place and some successful program outcomes. The City still faces a continual pattern of incidents of youth and family violence and crime, overcrowded and costly housing, lack of jobs for youth, and a lack of comprehensive integrated human services.” In recognition
of the opportunity to address these problems and devise solutions to them, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation dedicated funding to the partnership to develop a framework for preventing violence in Salinas. Cultivating Peace in Salinas focuses primarily on reducing youth violence but also addresses overall community well being. The City hired Prevention Institute, a national non-profit dedicated to forging effective local strategy, to facilitate the planning process and to develop a written framework.

The intent of the framework is to provide a snapshot of community assets and needs and chart out the kinds of long-term efforts needed to prevent and reduce violence. It builds upon previous Salinas reports, the expertise of the local community, and state-of-the-art prevention practices nationally. Thus, the framework provides a guide to the “next steps” in Salinas. While the primary focus of the report is on youth, and issues related to violence, it is clear that related health and human service issues as well as overall community functioning must be addressed.

Improving the health and well being of a community requires a comprehensive solution, and is constructed around the principles of effective primary prevention. Specific strategies are developed based on an environmental review and analysis—that is, gathering and understanding the data, risk and resiliency factors, community norms and climate so that recommendations are well informed by the current situation in Salinas. Finally, the conclusions of any framework must be developed and owned by the local community in order to maximize the framework’s accuracy and the likelihood that recommendations will be implemented. Cultivating Peace in Salinas is grounded in local understanding while drawing upon the state-of-the-art knowledge in the field.
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