VPA project groups
The VPA includes Process Project Groups, working on cross-cutting areas, and Technical Project Groups, focusing on specific content areas.
Process working groups
Assets database project group
Leader: Maria Valenti (mvalenti@ippnw.org – IPPNW);
Aim: To maintain and expand a searchable online database which catalogues the assets and resources of VPA participants that they are willing to share with other VPA participants. This should serve to strengthen the network and enhance collaboration among VPA participants. The database will also eventually map the network of networks constituted by the VPA.
Communications project group
Leaders: Michael Feigelson (Michael.Feigelson@bvleerf.nl – Bernard van Leer Foundation) and Alexander Butchart (butcharta@who.int – WHO);
Aim: To promote the uptake of evidence-informed violence prevention strategies through effective and carefully targeted communications campaigns aimed at policy makers which make the case for increasing the political priority of and investment in violence prevention.
Funders' network project group
Leaders: Jerry Reed (jreed@edc.org – Education Development Center) and Alexander Butchart (butcharta@who.int – WHO);
Aim: To bring those who support or may support violence prevention efforts to a common table to work collaboratively and cooperatively to advance global violence prevention work by promoting the large-scale implementation of evidence-informed strategies.
Training project group
Leaders: Jerry Reed (jreed@edc.org – Education Development Center) and Berit Kieselbach (kieselbachb@who.int – WHO);
Aim: To serve as a resource to the VPA and the violence prevention field for information on training and related activities to advance global violence prevention efforts.
Technical project groups
Criminal justice liaison group
Leaders: John Carnochan (john.carnochan@strathclyde.pnn.police.uk – Violence Reduction Unit of Scotland) and Jonathan Shepherd (shepherdjp@cardiff.ac.uk – University of Wales, College of Medicine);
Aim: To increase collaboration between the criminal justice/law enforcement and public health sectors at all levels, from local to international; to encourage the development of a shared agenda; to promote joint evidence-based violence prevention activities informed by the public health approach, with a view to improving the effectiveness of violence prevention, reducing the violence-related burden on health and criminal justice systems, and strengthening communities.
Violence prevention: an invitation to intersectoral collaboration
Parenting project group
Leaders: Cathy Ward (Cathy.Ward.SA@gmail.com – Safety and Violence Initiative, University of Cape Town), Theresa Kilbane (tkilbane@unicef.org – UNICEF), and Christopher Mikton (miktonc@who.int – WHO);
Aim: To advocate for reductions in the incidence of violence against children through increasing effective parenting. In view of the small evidence-base that is applicable to low- and middle-income countries, its work will have a particular focus on those regions. Increasing parenting capacity promotes healthy child development as a whole (for instance, better parenting leads to improved educational outcomes), and the synergies created by good parenting early in life reduce the likelihood of violence and aggression later in life.
Violence prevention in weak institutional settings project group
Leaders: Anna Alvazzi (anna.alvazzi@smallarmssurvey.org – Small Arms Survey) , Paula Miraglia (pmiraglia@crime-prevention-intl.org – International Centre for the Prevention of Crime), and Alys Willman (awillman@worldbank.org – World Bank);
Aim: To promote evidence-informed violence prevention strategies in settings where institutions are weak due to poverty, corruption, or to on-going or recent armed conflict.
Research agenda project group
Leader: Harriet MacMillan (macmilnh@mcmaster.ca – PreVAiL);
Aim: To establish a consensus-based list of research priorities for global violence prevention for the next five years on behalf of the VPA.
