Using community perspectives on youth firearm violence for prevention program planning

The Firearms Connection—The North Philadelphia Firearms Reduction Initiative is a youth firearm violence prevention program using a partnership model that links healthcare, criminal justice, business, and social service providers with neighborhood residents and community organizations to identify priorities and develop solutions. The assessment phase helped build the partnerships and engage the community in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of specific interventions. The needs assessment was used to 1) specify the problem of firearm violence in the target community; 2) frame possible solutions in the language of the community; 3) identify community assets and resources for planning, implementation and evaluation; 4) engage key members of the community for participation in the assessment and intervention planning process; and 5) identify appropriate markers for evaluation of progress and outcome. This paper presents the qualitative method of Rapid Participatory Appraisal used for the assessment, the results as related to the specific problem of youth violence, and how the assessment process was used to advance the coalition building process. � 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.