NACECC

Current ACE Cross-Site Workgroups

Acculturation/Cross Cultural

This group developed from small group discussions regarding Cross Cultural issues held during the March 2006 ACE meeting in Atlanta. Using a Delphi process the group has decided to focus on the on the links and relationship between acculturation and youth violence. The group includes members from CDC, Columbia, UI Chicago, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, Hawai`i, and Harvard. The group is lead by Paul Smokowski (smokowski@email.unc.edu).

Adolescent Dating violence

This group currently consists of members from Hawai`i, VCU, Chicago, and Columbia centers that are doing work on adolescent dating violence. Conference calls are held every 6 weeks to give input on each others protocols, discuss implementation issues, and opportunities for cross-site data collection which could lead to presentations and publications. A potential long-term goal of the group is the development and evaluation of a cross-site, culturally sensitive intervention. The group is lead by Deborah Gorman-Smith (Dsmith@psych.uic.edu) and Diane Hall (DHall@cdc.gov).

Bullying

This group, which currently consists of members from UC Riverside, Meharry and Johns Hopkins, developed from a common interest in the assessment of bullying and the evaluation of bullying prevention programs. The group is lead by Tamara Haegerich (THaegerich@cdc.gov).

Community Members/Outreach Workers

This group will be meeting for the first time during the ACE meeting in Riverside. The goal is to create a network of community members and outreach workers to share ideas, resources, etc. A determination will be made during the meeting on how best to facilitate these opportunities in the future.

Development of a measurement tool for youth violence and other adolescent outcomes

This group was initiated by the ACE Center PIs during the March 2006 meeting. The goal is to develop a general measure that could be used for prevention research that is free to the public and could be used by the ACEs to collect cross-site data. Currently, measures and questions from the various sites have been collected. The group is led by Nancy Guerra (Nancy.Guerra@ucr.edu).

A copy of the table of aggression/victimization measures is available for download.

Community-based Organization Practice Surveys

This group consists of representatives from the Meharry, CHOP, UCR, and VCU Academic Centers. The group has discussed various methodologies for surrounding surveying community-based organization representatives about the services that they implement to address violence prevention. All sites are collecting information from organizations that engage in violence prevention services in the community, but different research questions are being asked of these data. It is hoped that workgroup discussions and sharing of measures will result in understanding of how decisions are made regarding community-based service implementation from multiple levels, cross-site collaboration on measurement development and use, and interpretation of data from multiple perspectives. The group is led by Tamara Haegerich (THaegerich@cdc.gov).

Areas of Interest

The following areas/topics have been discussed in the past as opportunities for future collaboration. If you would be interested in pursuing one of these topics further please contact the CDC lead listed.

Youth access to firearms - Cory Ferdon (CFerdon@cdc.gov): During the March 2006 meeting, a small group from various centers was interested in developing a short list of survey items that could be integrated into ACE research project to expand the knowledge and information regarding this topic.

School based measures/interventions - Marci Hertz (MHertz@cdc.gov):After the March 2006 meeting school-based measures developed for ACE projects and from other CDC funded projects were pulled together and distributed to a group of interested researchers. No additional activities have occurred.

Gangs - Cory Ferdon (CFerdon@cdc.gov): At the March 2006 meeting, a discussion focused on requests to Centers to provide feedback on gang prevention interventions/programs and the lack of information regarding effective programs to prevent gang violence. It was suggested that a review and critique of efficacious or promising gang violence prevention strategies as well as the development of policy, research, and practice recommendations are needed. CDC was unable to secure funding for a series of expert panel meetings to develop this review, but is continuing to pursue funding through other avenues (e.g. foundations).

Ongoing Products and Activities

Community mobilization/community based participatory program evaluation - Nancy Stroupe (NStroupe@cdc.gov): By conducting informal discussion with key center staff, CDC will obtain an in-depth understanding of how community mobilization and community based participatory research is conducted at each center including the various goals, strategies, successes and lessons learned. This project will give CDC, the ACE Centers, and other stakeholders descriptive information about community mobilization and community based participatory research at each center.

Electronic media and youth violence - Cory Ferdon (CFerdon@cdc.gov) and Marci Hertz (MHertz@cdc.gov) An expert panel meeting was held in September 2006 that included several ACEs and other experts in the field. CDC is currently developing issues briefs for educators, policy makers, and researchers on the topics. A special issue on the topic will be developed.