FICAP is proud to be connected with the new Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center (PCVPC). PCVPC brings together academic institutions and community-based organizations to conduce community-based participatory research through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal is to learn which programs are most effective in preventing violence among youth. This Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention is one of several U-PACE centers that have been funded by the CDC across the country and is the first to be funded in Philadelphia.

The new Center is significant for many reasons. First, the approach focuses on primary prevention. In other words, the goal is to start early to prevent violence from scarring the lives of young people. Second, it involves community-based organizations through the Philadelphia Area Research Community Coalition (PARCC), as partners sharing equally in the planning, leadership, analysis, and dissemination of research results. Third, it brings together academic institutions from across the city--The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania--to work in a collaborative fashion to address this critical public health issue.

The PCVPC will conduct research to adapt to promising prevention programs for use in West and Southwest Philadelphia. A key goal of the Center will be to learn how to best share research results with the community and incorporate community feedback into the design of research. The Center is founded on a commitment to ensure the long-term sustainability of violence prevention programs in the community. FICAP welcomes this important new resource for violence prevention.

Click here to learn more about PCVPC