# CE-22-005 Forging Hopeful Futures: A Racial and Gender-Justice Program to Reduce Youth Violence

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $399,918

## Abstract

In response to RFA-CE-22-005, this proposal addresses Objective One: Effectiveness research to evaluate
innovative approaches to reducing community violence and racial/ethnic inequities in risk for community
violence. Racially and ethnically diverse youth and youth residing in neighborhoods with concentrated
disadvantage disproportionately bear the burden of violence. Drawing upon a robust body of scholarship and
programming (especially in international settings), and applying an intersectional lens, youth violence can be
understood in the context of gender inequities (e.g., adherence to rigid masculinity norms), economic inequities
(e.g., unemployment), and race inequities (e.g., racism and discrimination). Chronic, repeated exposure to
early trauma and adversity (including violence), persistent experiences of bias-based discrimination, and lack
of economic opportunities can impede children’s healthy development and increase the likelihood of both
violence victimization and perpetration. Yet few community-driven approaches to violence in the US seek to
simultaneously intervene on gender socialization and unequal power dynamics. Programming that explicitly
takes into account these intersections and supports youth from diverse backgrounds to address gender-based
and structural inequities is both theoretically and empirically novel. The youth empowerment intervention to be
refined and evaluated, Forging Hopeful Futures, will combine economic justice content from job readiness
training, racial and gender justice content from gender-transformative programming, and leadership building as
a novel multi-level violence prevention intervention. Near program conclusion, youth will be connected with
employment opportunities and encouraged to continue participation in social change efforts, with scaffolding
offered through community organizations and mentors in each neighborhood. We will conduct a community-
partnered cluster randomized trial in 16 neighborhoods impacted by structural inequities and high levels of
community violence in Pittsburgh, PA and urban Washington D.C. and Maryland metro areas. Aim 1 will
evaluate effectiveness of Forging Hopeful Futures (intervention) compared to wellness check-ins (control)
among 14- to 19-year-old youth to decrease self-reported use of physical fighting and threat/injury with a
weapon (primary outcome) and multiple related forms of violence (i.e., physical, sexual, and emotional
relationship abuse, sexual violence, bullying). Aim 2 will examine mechanisms through which the intervention
creates impact and how pre-intervention risk and protective factors moderate intervention effects on multiple
forms of violence. Guided by the RE-AIM framework, Aim 3 will examine implementation processes that
facilitate intervention acceptability, reach, integration, fidelity, and engagement as well as costs associated with
intervention implementation across neighborhoods. Results expected to emerge from this rigorous
effectiveness ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10830354
- **Project number:** 5R01CE003502-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Alison J. Culyba
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $399,918
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-30 → 2025-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10830354

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10830354, CE-22-005 Forging Hopeful Futures: A Racial and Gender-Justice Program to Reduce Youth Violence (5R01CE003502-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10830354. Licensed CC0.

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