For youth to reach their full health and human potential, they need safe, stable, nurturing relationships 

and environments. Not all youth have an opportunity for this. One way that CDC is supporting the 

healthy development of youth is through the National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth 

Violence Prevention (YVPCs). 

YVPCs are applying innovative approaches to reduce youth violence across the nation. Specifically, 

YVPCs are:

• using effective violence surveillance tools to monitor trends in youth violence;

• partnering with community organizations to build capacity to prevent violence;

• conducting interdisciplinary research to rigorously evaluate prevention strategies; and

• developing community approaches for youth violence prevention that are scalable and 

can inform national prevention efforts.

Youth violence is preventable. Prevention begins with an understanding of the factors that increase risk 

or protect youth from violence. One framework for understanding these risks – and how to reduce them – 

is the social-ecological model. 

youth violence prevention centers

Creating Protective Community 

Environments to Support Healthy Youth 

Development and Prevent Youth Violence 

Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention

National Center for Injury

Prevention and Control

THE SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL MODEL 

AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION STRATEGIES 

The social-ecological model considers individual, relationship, community, and societal factors and how 

they interact and make violence more likely to occur. Prevention strategies that act across multiple levels 

of the model at the same time are more likely to reduce violence and sustain reductions over time.

Prevention strategies at the community and societal levels have the potential to reach more people and 

may be more cost-effective and sustainable than individual and relationship-level prevention strategies. 

However, there is a gap in the evidence about effective approaches to reduce community-level risk 

factors for youth violence. The YVPCs are addressing this gap.
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why the focus on 

community-level prevention? 

Strategies implemented by YVPCs are focused on prevention activities that can have community-level

impacts on youth violence. Community-level prevention strategies focus on changing the community 

conditions that increase or buffer against risk for violence. Some of the neighborhood conditions that 

increase risk for violence include poverty, crowded housing, residential instability, income inequality, 

high rates of unemployment, the number and location of alcohol outlets, low civic engagement, and 

lack of access to services and social support. 

Current evaluation efforts focus on the impact of community-level prevention strategies on the 

conditions that support healthy development of youth and prevent youth violence. These conditions 

include:

• economic investment in local neighborhoods; 

• safe and affordable housing; 

• neighborhood conditions that foster social interaction, strengthen connectedness, 

increase shared trust among residents, and improve safety; and

• social norms that promote community pride and positive cultural identity.

Additionally, improving community conditions has the benefit of addressing multiple forms of violence 

beyond youth violence. 

How is a community-level 

strategy different from a 

community-based strategy??

Community-based strategies: 

are implemented in a community 

setting but seek to change 

individual, peer, other proximal 

relationships, or family factors.

Community-level strategies:

seek to change community 

conditions that increase or 

buffer against the risk for 

violence, particularly the social, 

economic, and environmental 

characteristics of neighborhood, 

school, workplace, and other 

organizational settings.

Build youths’ 

skills to prevent 

violence and 

choose healthy 

behaviors

Help families 

create and maintain 

supportive, nurturing, 

and structured 

environments

Connect youth to 

caring adults 

and activities

Create safe and 

affordable housing

Improve the 

economic stability 

of neighborhoods

Change the 

physical and social 

environment to foster 

social interaction 

and strengthen 

connectedness

Promote norms that 

protect against violence

Create policies to 

improve household 

financial security, 

strengthen access to 

quality child care and 

education, and improve 

services for all children

relationship

COMMUNITY

SOCIETAL

INDIVIDUAL
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what kinds of community-level 

strategies do the yvpcs use? 

Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center 

(MI-YVPC): Community 

Engagement & Revitalization 

MI-YVPC partners with community members and 

organizations to address neighborhood conditions that 

increase the risk of violence. One of their strategies 

is to improve the safety of neighborhoods by turning 

vacant properties into clean, attractive, well-lit spaces 

where neighbors can have positive interactions. 

Why it works: This community-level strategy applies the principles of Crime Prevention Through 

Environmental Design (CPTED) to promote healthy youth outcomes. By working with residents to 

create safe spaces and improve their appeal and use, communities can improve neighborhood 

conditions. In turn, this strengthens positive social interactions and creates long-term change to 

the physical environment.

Community-level prevention can help us change the context in which youth develop. It can also help us 

achieve important reductions in all forms of violence and impact a greater number of people. However, 

we also need to consider how these contexts are shaped by a wider set of societal factors, including 

educational, economic, and social policies. Additionally, we need to address how social systems and 

structures prevent some people from reaching their fullest potential.

Strategies that focus on the community-level such as strengthening household financial security, 

providing quality childcare and education early in life, ensuring livable wages, and other work-family 

supports are important to address the contexts where youth live. Addressing these risk factors and 

providing protective factors foster safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children 

and youth. Community-level prevention strategies not only improve the conditions in which children and 

youth are born, grow, work, live, and age but can also prevent violence from occurring in the first place.
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want to learn more?

YVPCs are leading the way to find innovative, community-level solutions to promote 

healthy youth development and prevent youth violence across the nation. 

To learn more about the YVPCs and their work, visit cdc.gov/violenceprevention/YVPC/

Youth Violence Prevention Research Center 

at the University of Louisville 

(UofL YVPRC): “Pride, Peace, Prevention” 

Social Norming Campaign 

 The goal of the campaign is to stimulate 

community dialogue to create new, 

positive social norms to prevent violence. 

These new social norms promote community 

pride, positive racial identity, and nonviolent 

solutions to conflict. The campaign uses 

social media, TV and radio ads, bus shelter 

signs, and billboards to communicate 

messages and imagery related to Black 

history and cultural pride. 

Why it is innovative: UofL YVPRC engages youth 

as agents of change in their community. Through 

a social norms approach, youth are influencing 

how violence is perceived in the community 

and helping to change the norms of the broader 

community. This approach also builds youths’ 

capacity to address social issues and the 

root causes of community violence, including 

historical and structural racism.