DEPARTMENT: Health
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Sandra Guerra, MD, MPH
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Authorizing an Agreement with Cure Violence Global
SUMMARY:
This ordinance authorizes an agreement with Cure Violence Global for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District's (Metro Health) Violence Prevention Program, in an amount not to exceed $125,000.00. Cure Violence Global will provide services relating to the training of Violence Interrupters and Outreach Workers to implement their gun violence reduction model for a one-year term beginning October 1, 2020, and ending September 30, 2021, and funded by the General Fund.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
As the local health district for the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, Metro Health addresses the epidemic of gun violence from a holistic, community-based perspective. The disproportionate burden of violence falls on youth and communities of color. Violent deaths from suicide and homicide are one of the leading causes of premature death for people ages 10 - 24. Homicide and Suicide are only behind accidental injury in causes of death ages 15 - 24 in Bexar County.
In 2015, Metro Health examined alternatives to help curtail bloodshed and the revolving door of incarceration identified by Dr. Slutkin's 'Cure Violence Global', an evidence-based model, as a solution that treats violence as a communicable disease. Cure Violence Global targets three critical factors that are believed to be the major determinants of violence: community norms, limited knowledge about the available alternatives to violence, and underestimating the severe consequences of violence for the community. Locally implemented as 'Stand Up SA', the initiative hires violence interrupters and outreach workers as credible messengers, who may be formerly incarcerated persons, to interrupt and prevent violence. Cure Violence is a behavioral health approach to violence prevention, rather than a law enforcement-based approach. Approac...
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