On July 13, 2021, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to expand the Trauma Prevention Initiative (TPI), including enhanced services in the current 4 South Los Angeles communities, and expanding to 5 new communities. These communities were identified based on an analysis of crime data, homicide data, poverty, and recent increases in violence. The Office of Violence Prevention is partnering with community stakeholders to implement evidence-based violence prevention and intervention strategies and tailor them to the unique needs of each community. While baseline funding for the current South Los Angeles communities is ongoing, funding for TPI expansion is currently approve for 1 year. The County is working on identifying long-term funding.

OVP is grateful for the support of the Board of Supervisors for expanding community-driven public safety in the County. This would not have happened without the support of our many county and community partners who have made this work happen and advocate for it to expand, including the leadership of our Community Action for Peace networks, and the intervention workers who risk their lives daily to promote peace in their communities.

On April 6, 2022, Public Health hosted a community event highlighting the countywide expansion of the Trauma Prevention Initiative (TPI), at Mona Park in Willowbrook. Each April, Public Health convenes a series of events, along with public health departments across the country, during Public Health Week. This event was a celebration of community partners where TPI began in South LA, the importance of meaningful partnerships with community leaders, and the need for sustained investment in Peer approaches to promote peace and reduce retaliatory violence. Second District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Parks and Rec Director Norma E Garcia Gonzales, and LA County District Attorney George Gascon, spoke at the event, along with OVP Director Andrea Welsing, and two TPI community leaders from Westmont West Athens and Willowbrook, Kevin Orange and Reginald Johnson.

• For a summary of TPI expansion and event, click here or view these images here.
• Public Health's press release can be viewed here: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=3799
• View a recording of the event on Public Health's Facebook Live page: https://www.facebook.com/lapublichealth/videos/687577825621979/
• Listen to LA County's Department of Public Health's Podcast Episode 7 "Reducing Violence In LA County" featuring interviews with Dr. Ferrer & Norma Garcia, Sup. Mitchell, Andrea Welsing, and Kevin Orange:
  Listen Now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
  
• To view photos from the event, please click through the slideshow below:

Public Health Week: TPI Expansion Gallery

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In 2020, the LA County Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) contracted with Urban Peace Institute (UPI) as a consultant to develop recommendations for expanding community-driven public safety across the county, as this was a priority of OVP’s Strategic Plan. TPI has been building this work in South LA since 2016, investing in Street Outreach and Community Violence Intervention, Hospital Violence Intervention Programs, and Community Action for Peace networks.

UPI’s report is based on a series of virtual dialogues with a multidisciplinary group of violence intervention experts across the county. The report includes recommendations to 1) make county funding and contracting more equitable; 2) provide capacity building to help organizations grow their infrastructure; and 3) build a system to support career pathways for system impacted peer specialists.

As OVP begins to expand TPI to additional communities across LA County, the information in this report is invaluable to inform policy and system change support community driven public safety and may be of assistance to other initiatives that seek to invest in peer specialists and supporting grassroots organizations.

Over the past year, we used part of our TPI budget to contract with Urban Peace Institute (UPI), to develop a report: The Scope of Intervention in LA County: A Vision of Sustainability for Community Based Safety. This report was developed with input and guidance from the LA County Violence Intervention Steering Committee, which is comprised of intervention experts across the county. This is the second report that UPI has put together for us, to inform recommendations for the county’s expansion of TPI and community based violence intervention services. The report includes 3 key recommendations:

• LA County should target investment to communities underrepresented that need intervention services, particularly Latinos and women, and develop a strategy on how to build intervention from the ground up in communities that do not have it.
• LA County should support programmatic and capacity building funding in communities that currently have intervention, to support expansion of services and grassroots organizational development.
• LA County should develop, oversee, and administer a continuum of trainings for intervention workers and ambassadors, including training for new staff and experts, deeper dives in aspects of the work, trauma informed practice, and other topics such as CSEC, substance use, and parenting.

The recommendations in the report will help guide how TPI work expands in the future, as well as American Rescue Plan investments in Trauma Prevention Partnerships project that will start rolling out at the end of this year.