We believe that every individual has the potential to thrive. That is why we are working with our community partners to develop and implement an intervention that will empower individuals and create a safer, more vibrant community. The Run It Up Project: Changing Youth Narratives on Firearm Violence is designed to open doors for youth with training, support, mentoring and outreach to change the landscape of opportunity for youth, which we hope will in turn reduce the structural drivers of firearm and related violence. Join us in our mission to unlock the potential of our community.
Understanding the Situation in DC / Washington Highlands:
​District of Columbia:
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Violent crime up 28% from 2021
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Homicide rates up 14% from 2020 and 2021
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Highest impact in socioeconomically challenged communities
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Washington Highlands (intervention community in Ward 8)
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Makes up 35% of the ward’s population
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Ward 8: 95% African American / 27% under 18 years
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Ward 8: Highest poverty rate of all wards / unemployment at 25% / youth unemployment at 50%
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Historically, has the most arrests in the city
What are some of the underlying factors that drive youth participation in firearm violence?
Previous research has identified the following factors:
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Exposure to multiple risk factors over time (individual, peer, family, school and
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community levels)
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Lack of sufficient exposure to protective factors (as a buffer against risks)
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Poverty/multiple stressors and ACEs, low community efficacy
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Peer/community social norms
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Availability of guns
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Yet, despite the recognized influence of structural determinants, only a limited amount of research and few interventions have attempted to focus on specific connections between structural determinants and individual risk of engaging in violent behavior. The Run It Up intervention addresses that gap.
Proposed Intervention:
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Experimental, theory-driven effort to address a specific connection between structural factors, youth identity development, and violence, where structural factors in some communities (e.g., histories of poverty, racism and exclusion) may limit adolescent beliefs about potential life-trajectories (“possible selves”), and foreground potential trajectories that include violence as integral​
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Seeks to counter that dynamic by identifying and implementing alternative, non-violent identity trajectories – facilitated by a community support process that harnesses appropriate local resources, and then developing and disseminating multiple media products featuring narratives about these alternative trajectories​
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Intervention drawn from cultural persona theory; ecological positive youth development (PYD) theory; and branding theory – and from previous interventions
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Goal: To change the calculation of possible selves for adolescents in the identity development stage through the introduction, and actualization, of desirable, tangible trajectories that do not involve violence or pro-violence norms
What strategies will we use to implement this?
​As part of an NIH-funded cooperative agreement (multi-site), and in collaboration with the intervention community (Community Steering Committee):
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Phase One (Formative):
- Conduct formative research to finalize intervention elements – identify potential non-violent identities/trajectories that offer attributes that compete with violence-related trajectories
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​Develop a branding identity that captures those attributes
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Identify key community communication channels / potential additional community support orgs
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Develop/pilot test data collection instruments and protocols.
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Phase Two (Intervention): ​
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Implement intervention
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Collect baseline / 2 rounds follow-up survey data in community sample (ages 12-16 + parent/guardian and qualitative data to understand intervention effects
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Analyze the data / share data and results through the NIH cooperative agreement structure, and
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Disseminate results in collaboration with community partners and the NIH