Date: Fri, 23 Jun 95 03:54 EST From: Peter Nesbitt <0005111312@mcimail.com> To: Firearms Alert Subject: INFO: California Wellness Foundation - Violence Prevention Initiative. [Friends, this is who we are up against. While the NRA sends us a beg-letter asking us for cash to pay for their new building that cost over $30 million, The California Wellness Foundation lays out an initial $30 million without even batting an eye. You need to know the enemy. READ THIS AND LEARN! We have our work cut out for us. And they talk about how wealthy the gun lobby is! Hah! - PDN] [cover] The California Wellness Foundation =================================== VIOLENCE PREVENTION INITIATIVE =================================== ...a new direction for improving health and well-being in California [inside cover] [blank] [cover page] The California Wellness Foundation =================================== VIOLENCE PREVENTION INITIATIVE =================================== ...a new direction for improving health and well-being in California [inside cover page] [Black and white picture of one androgynous youth with hat on backwards, a young Negro female with long braided hair, and a young Hispanic male. All three have the "tough-guy" look.] The California Wellness Foundation is an independent, private foundation created to improve the health of the people of California. It was funded in February 1992 by a substantial endowment from Health Net, California's second largest health maintenance organization. Through the design, implementation and evaluation of health- promotion and disease-prevention programs, the Foundation is taking a leadership role in developing strategies and public policies necessary to enable individuals and communities to adopt healthy lifestyles. In August 1992, The California Wellness Foundation convened a National Advisory Committee composed of experts on the issue of violence prevention and members of communities affected by violence. The committee assisted the Foundation in identifying and determining priorities for strategies and approaches to prevent violence. Its recommendations were essential to development of the Foundation's Violence Prevention Initiative. THE VIOLENCE PREVENTION INITIATIVE The Board of Directors of The California Wellness Foundation, motivated by the tragic consequences of violent acts in our society, is launching an initiative to improve the health and well-being of Californians through the prevention of violence. Initially, the Foundation will allocate $30 million over five years to develop and evaluate a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to reducing youth violence throughout the state. The Foundation's initiative seeks to alter the conventional view of many Californians that violence is inevitable. The initiative breaks with tradition by putting the issue in a public health perspective that focuses on prevention. This departure gives the Foundation an opportunity to influence a fundamental shift in public perception so that the problem of violence can be addressed and remedied. In moving the issue to the public health agenda, the Foundation intends to stimulate and support innovative programs patterned after public health strategies and methods that have succeeded in reducing death from disease and unintentional injury. Since young peole are disproportionately represented both as perpetrators and as victims of violence, the Foundation's far- reaching initiative will concentrate on youth age 24 and under. The initiative is expected to give Californians a direction for dealing with violence prevention in creative and substantive ways through a combination of leadership, community action, policy programs and research. Although it is the most significant philanthropic undertaking of its kind, the Foundation considers its initial commitment of $24 million modest in light of the gravity of the problem. The Foundation, therefore, will actively seek collaboration within the philanthropic community, with governmental agencies and with others in underwriting violence prevention efforts locally and statewide. By assuming a leadership role, the Foundation further hopes to foster sorely needed communication and collaboration among criminal justic, education, mental health, social services and public health professionals, and others, so that a coordinated approach to the control and prevention of violence might be developed in California. 1 Violence has become a public health problem of severe magnitude, exacting a heavy toll on the lives and well-being of individuals and communities throughout California and the nation. The problem manifests itself in the form of personal violence - the intentional use of physical force against another person or against oneself which either does or could easily result in injury or death. It also takes the form of societal violence - a consequence of oppressive environments and systems within which an individual's or group's fight for survival often erupts in interpersonal or self-harm. Violence touches the lives of millions of Americans each year. In 1991, murder rates hit an all-time high in the United States, with 24,703 victims dying at the hands of others. Homicide is the nation's twelfth leading cause of death and the sixth leading cause of premature mortality. Violence is found at alarming rates in many other aspects of American life. Two to four million women annually are battered by a spouse or partner; more than 650,000 women are raped; 1.5 million children and 1.1 million elderly are abused. The cost of violence to society is immense. The lifetime cost of firearm injuries alone totaled $20.4 billion in 1990. While the cost to the sense of well-being for the general public is difficult to determine, many individuals and communities clearly experience a chronic anxiety, fear and "dis-ease" because of their exposure to violence. Violence among youth in the United States is increasing sharply. Homicide rates among the young stand at their highest level in this centruy and have more than doubled in the past 30 years. Young people, in fact, are disproportionately represented among perpetrators and victims of violence. For example: -> Homicide is now the second leading cause of death in the United States among youth 15 to 24 years old. -> Those between the ages of 12 and 24 face the highest risk of nonfatal violence of any segment of our society. -> Nearly 50 percent of the estimated 4.2 million nonfatal crimes of violence in the nation in 1989 were committed by offenders between the age of 12 and 24. 2 [Picture of a young Hispanic couple sitting next to each other, heads tilting towards each other. Smiling slightly.] Homicide has a particularly disproportionate impact on minority youth. For more than a decade, it has been the leading cause of death among both male and female African Americans in the 15-24 age group. Young Hispanic males and Native Americans are also at high risk. But violence is not just a problem for young minority Americans - it threatens youth of all racial and ethnic groups and knows no geographic limits. The easy availability of firearms is believed to be a major factor in the increasing lethality of youth violence. A nationwide survey by the Centers for Disease Control found that one student in 25 carried a gun in 1990. A separate study reported that 34 percent of urban high school students thought handguns were easily accessible. The extent of violence is even more schocking in California, which led the nation with 3,859 homicides in 1991. Both the homicide and suicide rates for the state are higher than rates for the nation as a whole. Firearms are the instruments of death in the majority of these incidents. Homicide is at epidemic levels among the state's youth, especially among African American and Hispanic youth. It is the second leading cause of death in the 20 to 24 age group. 3 [Map of Califorania with County boundaries indicated. Sacramento, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego Counties are all highlighted in orange.] Although violence occurs in all parts of the state, youth homicide is more prevalent in counties that have high-density urban areas. Twelve California counties account for more than 95 percent of youth homicides. The costs are staggering. Orange Count, for example, spends at least $15 million every year on the arrest and trial of its murder suspects. This "homicide tax" amounts to $18 for every household in that county and exceeds the budges of 13 of the county's cities. But the cost of violence to individual and community well- being in California and elsewhere goes far beyond dollars. Violence has triggered an overwhelming sense of fear in major cities and a widespread feeling of insecurity in the suburban areas that surround them. 4 THE PUBLIC HEALTH PERSPECTIVE As long as violence continues to be viewed within a conventional context of criminal justice, trauma centers and coroners' offices, it will be addressed only after it occurs. The California Wellness Foundation initiative recognizes that the time has come to build models for prevention within a public health framework to stem the epidemic of violence in the state. Those concerned with preventing unintentional injuries have had notable success in altering the physical and social environment to reduce risk. They have, for instance, made cars and roadways safer and have required seat belts and motorcycle helmets to reduce deaths from motor vehicle crashes. The public health model for violence prevention considers four elements in the design of intervention strategies: -> The host for intentional injury - the at-risk adult or youth who may be injured or who may injure himself, herself or another. -> The agent of intentional injury - usually the kinetic energy delivered by gun, knife, blunt object or fist. -> The physical environment - home, neighborhood, workplace, school, jail or elsewhere. -> The social environment - shaped by joblessness, oppression, racism, the media, alcohol and other drugs, family disarray and despair. Placing violence in a public health perspective invites solutions that focus on clearly defined outcomes - in this case, reducint morbidity and mortality. Such a focus stimulates development of strategies and methods that cross various disciplines and domains as does the problem of violence itself. Because violence in our society is such a multifaceted problem, it poses a daunting challenge to the public health approach. however, the success of public health campaigns to change public policies related to alcohol-impaired driving, tobacco control and vehicle-occupant protection gives the Foundation every reason for optimism in its effort to stem this current epidemic. 5 [Black & white picture of a young Caucasian man and woman, looking at each other, smiling.] COMPONENTS OF THE INITIATIVE The California Wellness Foundation Violence Prevention Initiative consists of four interactive components - a Leadership Program, Community Action Program, Policy Program and Research Program. Leadership Program This component attempts to empower communities by recognizing and promoting the importance of leadership in violence prevention. It is also designed to support the professional training of ethnic minorities and women in violence prevention and injury control. As part of this component, The California Wellness Foundation will: -> Select 19 community fellows each year from among neighborhood organizers, activists survivors of violence, former gang members and other working at the grassroots level to reduce violence. Each leader will receive a $40,000 two-year fellowship. The fellow will be asked to select two youth leaders whom he or she will mentor during that time to build additional leadership and advocacy skills. -> Establish community leadership awards to support and acknowledge the work of individuals in dealing with the root causes of violence. Awards of $25,000 each will be presented annually to three individuals who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to reducing violence in their communities. -> Institute an academic scholars program to increase by 30 the number of professionally trained health workers committed to violence prevention. Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded annually to six qualified institutions for this purpose. 6 Community Action Program This component is intended to provide resources and technical assistance to selected communities to decrease youth violence through community health promotion programs. Violence negatively affects most aspects of community life. It touches the lives of thousands of individuals, wheter they are direct victims, live in fear of violence or perpetrate violence. In all three of these situations, individuals have a diminished capacity for healthy living and have poorer health outcomes. There is no single cause of violence. The problem results from a complex interplay of oppressive social systems, cultural milieu and individual behavior. Effective strategies to decrease violence must, therefor, go beyond traditional modes of thinking to envision communities where violence and the fear of violence do not control daily life. They must provide people with the education and skills they need to intervenet in and stop violent behavior. Because violence affects everyone, strategies to prevent it must be as inclusive as possible. Communities can begin to reduce levels of violence through a process of community empowerment or action. Empowerment involves a means of enabling individuals to take action to control and improve their lives. Community empowerment is the process by which a self-identified community gains the power to achieve specified ends. The Foundation's initiative is intended to promote such empowerment and thereby eliminate the sense of powerlessness that often lies at the core of violence. Ten community projects will be funded through a competitive request for proposal process. Community organizations will be urged to form broad-based coalitions of major local public and private entities in developing pilot projects to reduce youth violence. young people will play an active role in the planning and decision-making process. Policy Program Developing policies that actually reduce viiolent deaths and injuries in a formidable task. Both the Centers for Disease Control and California's Injury Control Program indicate the need for new policies governing firearms and alcohal and other drugs as a means of preventing violence. Coordinated, focused social action is often required, however, for desired policy change to occur. 7 [Black and white picture of a young Negro couple sitting together. The female is behind the male, with her hand wrapped around his chest. Both appear quite happy.] The Policy Program component of the initiative will draw from the lessons of campaigns that have successfully affected public policies in the past, incorporating such methods as coalition building, technical assistance to policymakers and community-based media advocacy. Media advocacy activities will be aimed at allowing local communities to gain access to the media and participate in its agend setting, the framing of issues, and the redifinition of solutions and policies in a public health context. The California Wellness Foundation will identify an experienced public policy advocacy organization and establish within it a Pacific Center for Violence Prevention to help ensure that all components of the initiative are integrated with the Policy Program. The Center will provide media and public policy advocacy training to all individuals involved with the initiative. This will result in a statewide network of violence-prevention advocates - connected by an electronic communication system - who can reinforce the public health perspective on violence prevention. 8 A portion of the center's resources ill be directed to expanding a library collection of materials on violence prevention. It will offer access to a national database to help communities find up-to-the-minute information on violence prevention and health promotion. The center will also serve as a resource for print and electronic journalists. In addition, the center will work closely with local, state and community leaders, advocacy groups, members of the media and other community systems to help increast public awareness of problems associated with youth violence. It will identify and expand the role of policy makers in creating comprehensive solutions at state and local levels. Another facet of the Policy Program will be an Entertainment Industry Project to establish policies governing the portrayal ofyouth and violence within the news and entertainment industry. Industry-developed policies promoting a balance between positive and negative news reports about specific groups and communities and their relationship to violence will give greater emphasis to those working to prevent violence, and thus help address the problem. The Foundation will also work with the industry to recruit celebrities as spokespersons for the initiative and will conduct market research to assess the feasibility of developing a much broader public education campaign - one directed at the environmental/policy factors leading to violence. Research Program The Research Program is designed to extend and deepen the research base vital to public policy development. It will examine such violence-related issues as alcohol and other drugs, firearms and gang involvement, as well as looking at socioeconomic and public health conditions. The California Wellness Foundation believes that sound policy must be based on applied research that defines the nature and extent of a problem and identified possible solutions. WIth strong research findings as an underpinning, thepublic policy process can then accommodate the political, economic and social realities of effecting change. The Foundation will identify several experienced researchers in California capable of meeting the objectives of this component. 9 [last page] EVALUATION The California Wellness Foundation is committed to a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of its Violence Prevention Initiative and will retain an independent evaluator to oversee this crucial task. The independent evaluator will work closely with the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, Foundation staff and community leaders in developing evaluation tools and methods to document both the process and outcomes of the initiative. The evaluator will assist the Foundation in establishing measurable objectives for programs in each component of the initiative, will monitor progress toward achieving these objectives and will furnish ongoing assistance to community participants. MANAGING THE INITIATIVE The California Wellness Foundaiton will manage the initiative and coordinate its components to ensure that these distinct elements become truly interdependent and interactive. In this way, the Foundation hopes to create the synergy needed for optimum effectiveness. The Foundation will convene another Advisory Committee - made up of experts in the field of violence prevention, grassroots community leaders, youth, public officials, and representatives from public health, law enforcement and criminal justice - which will remain active for the duration of the initiative. An annual conference will be held for all participants in the initiative. This event is intended to promote a common focus for preventing youth violence, develop an annual strategic plan for the policy campaign and encourage networking. The California Wellness Foundation 6320 Canoga Avenue, Suite 1700 Woodland Hills, California 91367-71111 818-593-6600 [inside back cover] [blank] BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Jonathan E. Fielding, M.D. MPH, MBA, Chairperson Roger F. Greaves Howard A. Kahn, President Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., MPH Sheldon Margen, M.D. Earl G. Mink Kenneth R. Pelletier, Ph.D. Faye Wattleton The California Wellness Foundation 6320 Canoga Avenue, Suite 1700 Woodland Hills, California 91367-71111 818-593-6600 [end]