Rationale for the study
The rationale for our study design is guided by our existing research experience and evidence acquired by our community-academic team that has been collaborating on efforts to reduce community gun violence for more than a decade. After a sharp rise in homicide rates in 2011 in New Haven, CT, our team formed with the aim of developing community-driven approaches to mitigating the incidence and effects of chronic gun violence, using an assets-based approach to leverage and enhance existing community resources and strengths (the assets) in the intervention design [As such, we used a systems science approach to map community factors that collectively result in high rates of gun violence and to identify leverage points within this system that are likely to result in sustained reductions in community gun violence. Using a participatory approach, our multi-stakeholder, community-academic team including representatives from housing, education, law enforcement, healthcare, academics, community leaders, youth programs, mental health, crisis outreach, and those with a history of incarceration co-designed a causal loop diagram (i.e., a diagram that depicts how each community factor contributing to gun violence affects each of the others) to better understand the complex interplay of these and other community factors that allow gun violence to persist. Using the causal loop diagram, our team identified five key leverage points that together are likely to reduce the incidence of gun violence and mitigate its community-wide effects: socioeconomic status, mental well-being, social cohesion, criminal-legal system, and gang influence. In addition, data from in-depth qualitative interviews performed among residents of New Haven neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence were used to triangulate findings and prioritize key leverage points to act on. Emergent themes from these qualitative data included community building, strengthening long-term residence and homeownership, and improving access to mental healthcare as key mechanisms for reducing community firearm violence [