Engaging Youth in Injury and Violence Prevention:

Why Engage Youth In Injury and Violence Prevention Education?

Engaging youth in injury and violence prevention education, particularly youth of color, can empower them with tools to promote safety, connect them with role models and mentors in their community who can bring awareness to the long-term effects of violence, foster consideration of safer alternatives for conflict resolution, and highlight opportunities to promote the youths’ future success.

The program model that we describe in this guide is designed to:

• Educate students about injury and violence prevention, with a focus on communities of color
• Engage students in hands-on, critical thinking exercises relevant to injury and violence prevention
• Provide tools and resources students can use to make their lives and the lives of their families, friends, and community members safer
• Offer role models (e.g., professionals of color) who can share their life and career paths with the students

Our Story

In the spring and summer of 2022 and 2023, the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center’s (HIPRC’s) Outreach and Training & Education Cores partnered with community-based youth summer education programs to support an engaged learning opportunity in injury and violence prevention for middle and high school youth. The learning opportunity included four 60-90 minute presentations, engaging the students in thinking and learning about four topics chosen by the community-based programs:

• Mental health and suicide prevention
• Intimate partner violence and healthy relationships
• Water safety and drowning prevention
• Gun violence

For one of the programs, we also included an injury prevention event with a helmet and life jacket giveaway program for youth and their families at the program’s end of summer celebration.

This guide draws from our experiences with youth education programming to provide guidance in offering youth education in injury and violence prevention.

Why This Guide?

The goal of this guide is to help build capacity among and empower conversation between organizations and individuals (e.g., community members, community-based organizations, healthcare organizations, academic settings, public health departments) so that they can co-design and co-develop injury and violence prevention educational programs for middle to high school students, particularly students of color.

Who Should Use This Guide?

This guide is for use by interested members of academic centers or programs, non-profit organizations or community-based organizations, educational programs, community members, and trainees interested in co-creating injury and violence prevention educational programs for youth. This guide can also be used by presenters, content experts and educational experts participating in injury and violence educational programs, and those organizing and conducting these programs.

What’s Included In This Guide?

You will find a step-by-step roadmap for the process of co-developing a collaborative, community-engaged injury and violence prevention educational program series

How To Use This Guide

This website is structured to help you easily navigate through the guide using two menus located on the left and right of your screen. If you are using a mobile device, you will see two purple boxes anchored in the middle of the screen. You can access the menus by pressing the left or right box. As you scroll down the page, the boxes/menus will scroll with you.

• Left Menu – Table of Contents:  This menu shows the guide’s sections that cover key aspects of programming. Whether you’re just starting or looking for specific details, the Table of Contents allows you to quickly access the section most relevant to your needs.
• Right Menu – Section Content: Once you’ve selected a section from the left menu, the right menu will display a detailed breakdown of the content within that section. This feature enables you to drill down into specific topics, making it easier to find the exact information you’re looking for. You can click any of the sections listed on the right and the website will take you to that area of information.

If you have any issues or questions accessing the Youth Education Guide, please email hiprccom@uw.edu for assistance.

Building A Program

How can you develop and implement a community-engaged injury and violence presentation educational program? The following steps will lead you through this process.

Identify A Partner Organization with Shared Goals and Commitment

• Find organizations that serve middle to high school aged youth within communities disproportionately affected by injury and violence. These organizations might include schools, youth after school organizations (e.g., Boys and Girls Clubs), and faith-based organizations.

Use The Principles of Community-Based Participatory Partnerships* in Building Your Program

• Form a collaboration between individuals and organizations working together on a common goal or issue of importance to the community.

*Learn about making community partnerships work (CBPP) >>

Identify The Program’s Injury and Violence Prevention Topics

• Ask your community partner to choose the presentation topics based on the priorities of the communities they work with and the expertise your organization brings. This is an important component of the co-design process and helps build the program partnership.
• Examples of topics for the presentation series might include:
  • Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
  • Intimate Partner/Dating Violence and Healthy Relationships
  • Drowning Prevention and Water Safety
  • Gun Violence
  • Traffic Safety
  • Concussion/Sports Injury
  • Substance Use
  • School Violence

Identify Presenters

• Community partners may prefer presenters who represent and/or have similar lived experiences as youths in the communities that they serve (e.g., presenters of color), so that students can see the presenters as potential role models.
• Presenters who represent and/or have similar lived experiences as youth served by the community partner can help promote a sense of connectedness and facilitate a supportive and interactive learning environment.
• Reach out through your network (e.g., collaborating organizations, educational programs, medical, physician assistant, and graduate student programs) to find individuals interested in a teaching opportunity.
• Make sure your organization’s project leads (e.g., an educational lead and program coordinator) meet with each interested presenter to share more about the program, to learn about the interested presenter, their interests and experiences, and to determine whether there is a mutual fit for the program.

Create Teams of Presenters, Content Experts, And Educational Experts

• Ensure that a full complement of expertise and support is available for creating effective, evidence-based presentations.
• Ask presenters which topics they are most interested in presenting to ensure presenter buy-in.
• Offer the opportunity for two presenters to work together as a pair for each topic area. This can bring different expertise, insights, and experiences to the presentation.
• Not all presenters will be experts in the chosen injury and violence prevention topic area or will have expertise in teaching middle or high school students. Identify content experts who can share expertise and materials with the presenters for each topic area, as well as educational experts who can share best practices for engaging youth (see the Building Engaging Curriculum section for more information). Content experts and educational experts may not necessarily present to the students.

Offer Engaging Curriculum

• Make sure students are provided opportunities to be active learners in the educational program (see the Building Engaging Curriculum section for more information).

Consider Planning An Injury Prevention Event to Accompany the Presentation Series

• Offering an injury and violence prevention event is one way to engage the students and their families further in the prevention messages offered during the presentations. This could be part of a celebratory event that many community organizations hold at the end of their programs for the students and their families.
• Notify students and families ahead of time about the event with an event flyer.
• Events can provide students and their families with safety items (e.g., bike helmets, life jackets), educate students and families on how to ensure proper fit and care of the items, and offer safety tips.

Building Engaging Curriculum

Building engaging curriculum requires expertise and creativity from presenters and content experts as well as program management support to prepare the interactive presentations and organize the educational series.

Support The Development of Presentations with Educational Best Practices

• Provide presenters with age-appropriate educational methods and strategies for creating interactive presentations.

Connect Presenters with Content Experts and Educational Experts as Needed

• If the presenters are not experts in the subject matter of the presentation, it can be helpful to identify content experts who can provide slides for presentations on the topic (especially with local statistics), offer expertise on presenting to this age group, and brainstorm on presentation content. Educational experts can collaborate with presenters to make sure the presentation uses educational best practices.

Build An Educational Community of Presenters Supported by Content Experts and Educational Experts

• Organize an in-person or virtual meeting to allow the presenters, content experts and educational experts from all of the presentations to meet one another and build an educational community. Provide program logistics at this meeting.
• Ask the educational experts to share tips and best practices for the presenters to incorporate in their presentations (e.g., bring stories relatable to students and their lived experience, focus on safety tips, use interactive and fun activities).

Meet with Individual Topic Area Presenters and Content Experts To Brainstorm and Plan Presentation Content

• The educational lead and program coordinator from your organization can attend these meetings to help guide the conversation and take notes. The presenters and content experts can share their experience in this topic area, and what their initial thoughts and ideas are for the presentation.
• During each meeting, document and organize the presentation ideas shared by the presenters and content experts, and keep track of the presenter and content expert to-do’s.

Gather Student Input Prior To The Presentation

• Collaborate with the presenters and content experts to brainstorm questions for a survey that can help introduce the students to the topics, and get the students to think about what they already know, what they would like to learn, and what questions they have for the presenters. The presenters can also ask questions about the students more generally and about their experience with the topic.
• Create an introductory PowerPoint presentation for the community partner to introduce the students to the learning partnership, to the presenters, to the topics, and to the end of program injury prevention event, if applicable. An ideal time to have the students complete the survey is directly after this presentation. It is best if the presentation can be given before the program begins so that the results are available to the presenters as they develop their presentations.
• Review the completed surveys, summarize the answers, and provide responses to the presenters/content experts to use in developing the presentation content.  The responses help the presenters understand the students and develop relevant content tailored to the students.

Provide Presenters With a Draft PowerPoint Presentation Outline

• Use the notes and ideas from the presentation content planning meeting to develop a PowerPoint template for the presenters. This PowerPoint template serves as a guide to the presenters as they gather their materials and create their presentation.
• Share ideas and content that other presenters are generating to ensure a transfer of creative ideas across the groups.

Assist The Presenters in Developing Their Presentation Content

• If the presenters do not have content expertise in their presentation’s topic area, content experts can provide them with PowerPoint slides that include relevant national, regional, and local statistics, background information on the topic area, and other resources as indicated.
• Assist the presenters in collating materials, developing slides, and compiling information gathered from the content experts into the PowerPoint presentation.
• Find additional content as requested by the presenters.

Review and Provide Feedback on the Presentations

• Presenters will develop the flow of their PowerPoint presentations (e.g., give students time for reflection and engagement) and the activities they are going to lead, as well as request the additional information they need for their presentation.
• Review each presentation, provide feedback, and add resources as needed.
• Share the presentation with the community partner for their review and feedback roughly two weeks prior to the planned presentation to give time for revisions if needed.

Gather Materials For the Day of the Presentation

• Resource Sheets
  • Presenters may want to provide resource sheets to leave with the students after the presentations. Injury and violence prevention topics (e.g., suicide prevention) may be challenging for the students, and providing resources that can support them after the presentation may be helpful (e.g., how to access mental health services).
• Giveaways
  • The presenters may have ideas for giveaways to promote engagement during their presentation. Your organization procures and supplies the giveaways for each presentation.
• Equipment
  • Some presentations need equipment (e.g., water safety presentation may need life jackets). Your organization procures and supplies the necessary equipment.
• Evaluation
  • Each presentation has a student evaluation form specific to each topic for the students to complete. Your organization creates this evaluation form based on the planned PowerPoint content, shares it with the presenters for review and feedback, and finalizes the version to bring on the presentation day.

Facilitate The Conduct of the Presentation On-Site on Presentation Day

• The program coordinator from your organization attends each presentation to ensure the technology runs smoothly, to assist with activities, and to bring all printed materials, giveaways, and needed equipment to the community partner location on each presentation day.

Logistics

The logistics section outlines key operational considerations, including securing necessary resources, allocating time and personnel, assembling materials, and establishing a program timeline. These elements are essential for effectively planning and implementing youth-focused injury prevention initiatives.

Resources

It is critical that your organization can provide personnel with adequate time to establish, support, and sustain the training program as well as offer the materials needed for the program, its presentations, and an injury prevention event, if applicable.

Time* and Personnel

Ideal staffing includes an educational lead and a program coordinator. These staff members support the program in five main ways:

• Pre-program planning:
  • ~6 hours for communications and virtual meetings with the community partner program leaders
  • ~30-60 minutes each for weekly internal program development meetings starting five months prior to program launch and continuing for one month after program completion (~seven months total)
• Presenter, content expert, and educational expert recruitment:
  • ~5 hours in communications and meetings with potential presenters, content experts, and educational experts
• Virtual planning meetings with presenters and content experts, and assistance with presentation development:
  • ~10 hours for meetings and communications
  • ~15 hours for creating and supporting presentations
• Materials gathering and development:
  • ~4 hours for materials gathering, development, and communications
• On-site coordination for presentations:
  • ~4 hours per presentation at the educational site for set-up and presentation support
• Event planning and hosting:
  • ~6 hours for event preparation communications and meetings
  • ~5 hours on the day of event
• Evaluation and program adjustment:
  • ~5 hours for student evaluation data entry and summarization
  • ~5 hours for virtual debriefing with presenters and community partner staff
  • ~5 hours for data review, distribution to presenters, and program adjustments

 *Time estimates are based on a four-presentation youth education series.

Materials

There are some standard materials needed for each presentation, and other materials that will depend on the presentation content.

• Standard materials:
  • Pre-presentation survey
  • PowerPoint presentations
  • Giveaway “prizes” (e.g., squeeze balls, hand sanitizer, books)
  • Evaluation forms
• Example materials for individual presentations:
  • Scripts for role plays
  • Activity sheets
  • Resource pages
  • Life jackets for drowning prevention training

Program Timeline

Our program timeline included below begins five months prior to launch, covering phases like early planning, outreach, material preparation, and staff coordination to ensure a smooth rollout. This extended lead-up allows time for thoughtful engagement with partners, recruitment, and logistics before presentations begin.

*Click Image to Enlarge*

Evaluating the Youth Education Program

Soliciting feedback from students, your collaborating community partner/s, presenters, content experts, and your organization’s program leaders is critical for making improvements to the program. The following section outlines an approach for evaluating your program.

Your organization:

• Facilitates evaluations of the individual presentations from the perspective of the students
• Conducts an evaluation of the program and its processes from the perspective of the presenters and content experts
• Seeks input on the program and its processes from the perspective of the community partner

Student Feedback

• After each presentation, give each student an evaluation form tailored to that presentation. For example, the students might rank each component of the presentation on its value to them, and then share three things they learned from the presentation, what they would like to share with the presenter, and what they would change for the next time the presentation is offered.

Presenter and Content Expert Feedback

• After all presentations are completed, use a feedback guide for virtual individual or group debrief meetings with the presenters and content experts to learn about their experiences with the program and in the classroom:
  • What went well
  • What could be improved
  • Any additional feedback or suggestions for the program
• Provide the presenters and content experts with the feedback guide before and after the debrief meetings so they can provide written feedback outside of the meetings.

Community Partner Feedback

• After all presentations and the injury prevention event, if offered, are completed, use a feedback guide to ask for feedback from the community partner either in writing or in a virtual or in-person meeting to learn:
  • What went well
  • What could be improved
  • Any additional feedback or suggestions for the program

Summarize and Share Student Feedback with Presenters

• Compile the results from the student evaluations and summarize the de-identified results to share with each presenter. The summary sheet includes an average of the scores rated with a Likert scale and individual responses for the questions about what the students learned and what they wanted to share with the presenter/s.

Next Steps

• After the debrief meetings with the presenters, content experts, and the community partner, compile the feedback related to:
  • What went well
  • What could be improved
  • Suggestions for future programs
• Use the feedback from students, presenters, content experts and the community partner to refine the program and its processes.

In Conclusion

We hope that this guide inspires you to co-design and co-develop a collaborative, community-engaged injury and violence prevention educational program series in collaboration with partners in your own community.

If you would like to learn more from our experience at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, please contact us at hiprccom@uw.edu or (206)744-9430.

Guide Authors:

Laura-Mae Baldwin, MD MPH

Christine Ector, MPH

Monica S. Vavilala, MD

Angele Theard, MD

Acknowledgements:

We acknowledge and appreciate the contributions of the community-based partners who helped shape this youth educational program and the many presenters and content experts who generously gave their time to educate youth in the community about injury and violence prevention.

Karishama Vahora, MPH