Center for Youth Equity

Children and young adults deserve to feel safe and supported. They should have a future full of opportunity and possibility, but structural racism and systemic barriers lead to inequity, which is a root cause of youth exposure to violence. Increasing access to resources must combine with support for young people to create social change.

The Center for Youth Equity is a culturally responsive youth violence prevention research center embedded within the ongoing community partnerships and existing infrastructure of the Violence Prevention Institute of Tulane University to build and strengthen the network for youth violence prevention in New Orleans and across the Gulf South. Its activities are in is a partnership with the City of New Orleans Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board, and University Medical Center. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CYE is the first CDC-funded Prevention Research Center in the Gulf South explicitly focused on youth violence prevention and one of only five in the United States.

Mission, Purpose, & Long-term Goal

Mission - Serve as a hub for innovative research, community-engaged outreach and translation, cutting-edge training, and youth violence and injury prevention education locally, nationally, and throughout the Gulf South region.

Purpose - To advance the science and translation of youth violence prevention through research, training, and outreach.

Long-term Goal - To apply our existing and successful team science approach to the prevention of youth violence by integrating dissemination and outreach, training, and research activity.

CYE Activities

  • Research & Evaluation - establish a research core with two distinct projects
    • Enrichment 2 Empowerment (E2E) - adapt, implement, and evaluate a multi-component enrichment and empowerment program to prevent and reduce exposure to community and police violence among younger African American youth (14 through 19 years) through youth-led research and social action.
    • Supportive Hospital-based Intervention for Firearm Trauma (SHIFT) - evaluate the effects of a hospital-initiated, community-integrated practice-based approach in reducing gun violence among older youth (18-24 years)
  • Training & Education - develop innovative and trans-disciplinary educational and training opportunities for early career and junior scholars, youth, and professionals aimed at developing and strengthening a workforce that is best positioned to impact youth violence prevention efforts locally, regionally, and nationally
  • Outreach & Translation - translate the evidence base for community youth violence prevention strategies into wide spread outreach and dissemination efforts targeting community groups, youth-serving organizations, hospital systems, and policymakers. Outreach & Translation also includes the Junior Civic Safety Council, a youth-led advisory board providing inputs on all aspects of CYE as well as VPI..