Deconstructing Community Violence With Big Data & Machine Learning

Public Health Insight

Gun violence is now a leading cause of death in many demographics but how do you intervene when many of the underlying causes don’t have anything to do with guns in the first place?

In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, Lori Toscano, Director of Justice Technical Assistance at WestEd, discusses using data analytics and machine learning to identify and address risk and protective factors for community violence.

The conversation covers a new framework, the Violence Prevention Navigation Framework (VPNF), that leverages 70 community-level indicators to guide deeper root cause analysis and to prioritize interventions.

Lori emphasizes intersectoral collaboration, historical community disinvestment, and primary prevention strategies to create systemic change. The episode showcases innovative tools to drive better understanding and actionable recommendations for improving community safety.

References for Our Discussion

◼️WestEd

◼️Violence Prevention Navigation Framework (VPNF)

Guest

◼️Lori Toscano

Host(s) & Producer(s)

◼️ Gordon Thane, BMSc, MPH, PMP®

Production Notes

◼️ Music from Johnny Harris x Tom Fox: The Music Room

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