# Evaluating a school-based social and material needs identification system to prevent youth violence involvement

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $400,000

## Abstract

Abstract
Social and material needs identification and resource connection systems have existed in schools for decades,
but researchers have not rigorously evaluated these systems with respect to their effects on youth violence
involvement. Central to the current proposal, a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)
program, Pathways to Potential (P2P), began in 2012 as a novel approach to the delivery of human services.
P2P is currently implemented in 288 schools throughout the state, whereby it stations MDHHS caseworkers,
called success coaches, in local elementary, middle, and high schools. After identifying a social or material
need that is a barrier to school attendance (e.g., transportation barriers, caregiver unemployment), success
coaches connect students and families to community resources and public assistance. These identified needs
not only are barriers to attendance, but also are risk factors for youth violence and child maltreatment. Given
P2P addresses common risk factors for multiple types of youth violence involvement and exposures, we
expect school involvement in P2P reduces the prevalence of peer violence and child maltreatment within a
school. This project will link longitudinal P2P participation data to state administrative records and school
disciplinary data to evaluate associations between school P2P participation and youth violence involvement—
specifically peer violence rates, firearm carriage rates, and child maltreatment rates within a school (Aim 1).
Given the focus of P2P is to improve the social and structural conditions within a school that contribute to
student chronic absenteeism, the team will assess if chronic absenteeism rates mediate the relationships
between school P2P participation and youth violence involvement (Aim 3). Finally, a survey of success
coaches will inform the examination of school and implementation factors that moderate associations between
P2P participation and youth violence involvement (Aim 3). Given racial disparities in social and material needs
and violence outcomes, the research team will evaluate P2P effects among (a) all schools and (b) schools with
a predominately non-White and/or Hispanic student body. The team will also assess the immediacy of
associations, evaluating outcomes both six-months into and at the academic year end. As a collaboration
between researchers, practitioners, and government agencies, the core research team and study partners are
well-positioned to conduct this research, disseminate results, and translate research findings into practice. The
proposed effectiveness research will evaluate the capacity of P2P to improve the social conditions within
schools that contribute to the prevalence of and inequities in youth violence involvement. Overall, this study will
help determine if school-based social and material needs identification and resource connections equitably and
immediately prevent youth violence.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10584280
- **Project number:** 1R01CE003496-01
- **Recipient organization:** WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rebeccah Lyn Sokol
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $400,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-30 → 2025-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10584280

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10584280, Evaluating a school-based social and material needs identification system to prevent youth violence involvement (1R01CE003496-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10584280. Licensed CC0.

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