R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

Prevention

The Violence Prevention Program (VPP): Program Components

Violence Intervention Project (VIP)

The Violence Intervention Project (VIP) is an innovative and effective model of intervention for individuals often categorized as "unreachable". Project participants are from the most volatile and impoverished Baltimore neighborhoods where profound social problems impact the entire community. They are entrenched in a "daily mode of survival" which encourages and sustains the occurrence of impaired judgment, risk taking behavior, interpersonal violence, illegal/illicit activity, self-medication, impulsive reactions, inconsistent education, decreased empathy/personal responsibility, complicated medical concerns, and under-employment. Participants have usually been both a victim and a perpetrator of interpersonal violence in their lives.

The VIP engages these individuals during a point of personal crisis and assists in the use of healthy coping techniques to resolve the problems at hand. This relationship establishes a supportive foundation from which additional positive changes are possible.

Violence Intervention Project (VIP)
In 1998, this team of investigators successfully conducted the largest concurrent case-control study of adult repeat victims of violence. This study revealed that even though these patients were victims of violence at the time, they had been perpetrators of violence in the past admitting to beating up others, shooting or stabbing someone. Many of these young survivors of violence have never been given the opportunity to experience positive life opportunities, which could help prevent them from becoming re-involved in the hospital and criminal justice systems. When asked what goals they had for their future, many stated that they wanted to take responsibility for their children and wanted to teach their children a better way of life so they did not have to go through what they were currently experiencing. From this research, the Violence Intervention Project (VIP) was designed. The VIP was the first hospital-based violence intervention project in the Nation that has been evaluated and proven successful. The PHAT program was developed in 2002 as the youth component of the VIP and has since been evolving to address the issues of Baltimore City youth. More Information on VIP
Promoting Healthy Alternatives for Teens (PHAT) PHAT is both a hospital and community-based program that focuses on youth issues surrounding interpersonal violence and planning for the future. The purpose of PHAT is to enhance the lives of youth and their families by promoting; healthy coping mechanisms, conflict resolution skills to prevent violence and reduce criminality due to violence and introduce the participants to professional hospital-based careers with the intent of improving educational and employment outcomes. More Information on PHAT
My Future - My Career In the 2005 - 2006 school year, we were able to expand and operate as an after school program with the New Era Academy with funding from The Family League of Baltimore City. The 10-week program had a violence prevention initiative while focusing on goals for the future including higher education and careers.

My Future - My Career
The youth were exposed to various professions and schools at the UMMC and the University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMB) campus. UM school participants included: Law, Social Work, Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, and Dentistry. Each school gave the students a tour and presented details including; necessary requirements to obtain a degree, specialty areas, salary, financial aid information, and mentoring / shadowing opportunities. Students also toured the UM hospital and the STC to observe various medical professionals at work including; emergency medical technician, radiology technician, certified medical assistant, counselor, surgical technician, physician, nurse, surgeon, physical therapist, phlebotomist, and hospital administration. A unanimous statement by the students at the final session was "next year, you need to plan more sessions and make them longer."
ARCHIVES OF SURGERY, article Vol. 135 No. 7, Pages 753-884, July 2000
Repeat Victims of Violence: Report of a Large Concurrent Case-control Study
The Journal of Trauma, September 2006, Volume 61, Issue 3
Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs Work.

This page was last updated on: June 19, 2007.