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MCW Violence Prevention Initiative Hosts Events for National Youth Violence Prevention Week

By Maureen Mack

April 8, 2014

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The Medical College of Wisconsin’s (MCW) Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI) aims to raise awareness of the issue of youth violence in local communities during National Youth Violence Prevention Week, which runs from April 7-13th.

On Saturday, April 12th, members of the VPI will join dozens of other community groups in a march across the Father James E. Groppi Bridge in Milwaukee, which is located at the 16th Street Viaduct. The Bridge Project is a campaign to inspire local families and leaders to unite for violence prevention.

Then on April 15th, Milwaukee youth who have an interest in healthcare careers will get an opportunity for some hands-on experience. The VPI will host a tour of MCW’s Standardized Teaching Assessment Resource Center, which is utilized by students, residents, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to practice their clinical skills using standardized (or actor) patients, medical simulators and task trainers under the direction of MCW faculty and staff. Youth will participate in hands on, interactive simulations with many of the stations to get insight into a variety of health professions.

The VPI is a special initiative of the MCW Consortium on Public and Community Health, funded by the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment through the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program. Focused on reducing youth violence in Milwaukee neighborhoods, the work of the VPI is completed by community and academic partners, who together are implementing the initiative based on best-practice and evidence-based models. The approach of the VPI includes positive youth and family development programming aimed at preventing violence before it occurs, as well as building greater capacity throughout the community to prevent future violence.

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