Addressing Structural Factors to Prevent Youth Violence Through a Multisector Collaborative Approach.

Youth violence is a significant public health concern with differential impacts on youth who reside in high-burden communities. Structural factors, including institutional practices and policies, contribute to the concentration of youth within neighborhoods where violence is more likely to occur. Across disciplines, scholars have identified structural factors that affect not only the prevalence of violence but also environmental conditions that make violence more likely. Consequently, interventions may fall short of addressing the root causes of violence, perpetuating cycles of harm rather than fostering long-term solutions. It is crucial to advance community and societal level approaches to address macro-level factors influencing youth violence. The Institute of Medicine's Framework for Collaborative Public Health Action suggests that community coalitions may contribute to preventing youth violence by facilitating multisectoral engagement across socioecological levels to promote sustainable change. Guided by this framework, the ThrYve Coalition in Kansas City convened over 40 community partners across 15 sectors to address youth violence (Watson-Thompson et al., 2020). Through a collaborative process, 87 change lever strategies (i.e., strategies to implement program, policy, practice changes) were identified to support community and systems-level improvements aligned with risk and protective factors related to youth violence. Between 2018 and 2022, the ThrYve Coalition implemented more than 199 community changes, addressing social and structural determinants related to youth violence. This study examines the collaborative process for facilitating change as part of a comprehensive community intervention to prevent youth violence.