Leading the Charge: A Look Inside the Behavior Analysis in Practice Emergency Series of Publications on Systemic Racism and Police Brutality.

This article introduces the "Behavior Analysis in Practice Emergency Series of Publications on Systemic Racism and Police Brutality." After the murder of George Floyd, the behavior analytic community was charged to respond in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King's challenge to social scientists. The charge of Dr. King was to explain real life phenomena negatively affecting the Black community. This series covered a wide range of topics with the intent of creating solutions that may be used to address remnants of the overarching impact of systemic racism and anti-Blackness. In this editorial, we provide an overview of the major themes of the accepted articles, some personal accounts of the editorial team, context for the special issue, discuss the contributions of the included articles, and a discussion of the areas in need of further work.

Actively Addressing Systemic Racism Using a Behavioral Community Approach.

Recent police brutality and related violence against Black people, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, has further evidenced the disproportionate impact of systemic racism in our institutions and across society. In the United States, the alarming mortality rates for Black people due to police violence and COVID-19 related deaths are clear demonstrations of inequities within a long history of disparate outcomes. In understanding systemic racism, it is essential to consider how it is embedded within society and across socio-ecological levels. The Social-Ecological Model (SEM) is used to examine conditions within the environment that maintain systemic racism, including within our field and discipline. A behavioral-community approach for examining racism aids in determining points of intervention across multiple ecological levels that may contribute to behavior change, including with behaviorists. The science of behavior is well-suited to help examine the contingencies governing behaviors within and across systems, which is pivotal for addressing operant behaviors to influence long-term behavior change. This paper calls on the behavioral community to address systemic racism within our environments and systems of influence to contribute to a more equitable community. Systemic racism, including within the context of anti-Blackness, is examined by considering behavior change strategies that can be supported by behaviorists across socio-ecological levels. Tools for collaborative action are provided to support behaviorists in demonstrating the skills needed across a continuum of behaviors from allyship to anti-racism to actively address systemic racism.

Progress Toward a Multisectoral Community Intervention Approach to Prevention of the Word Gap.

Children learn language through the interactions they have with their parents/caregivers beginning at birth. Hart and Risley (1995) discovered an inequity in the home language input children received from parents/caregivers. Children reared in low-income families received less input (conversations, turns) from parents than did children reared in more advantaged families. Less language input was linked to a disparity in children's vocabulary learning by age 3. The long-term result of this social determinant of early language/literacy learning is a life trajectory of poor educational, economic, and health attainment for many children in families with limited resources, at vast cost to individuals, communities, and the nation. What is needed is an approach to word-gap prevention that is capable of achieving positive individual, community, and population outcomes. Translating research into practice, we developed the Bridging the Word Gap Community Action Planning Guide (BWG-CAPG) using a combined behavior-analytic, community psychology, and public health framework for this purpose (Greenwood et al., 2017). We also developed a progress-monitoring measure, the online BWG Community Check Box Evaluation System, to provide feedback on a community's actions and progress in implementing their plan. Results from an initial pilot investigation within and across three community sectors in a large urban city were promising. BWG Community Check Box results indicated a number of desired outcomes: (a) capacity development and mobilization, (b) community implementation actions, and (c) community changes in practices, programs, and policies. Implications are discussed.

Together Helping Reduce Youth Violence for Equity (ThrYve): Examining the Development of a Comprehensive Multisectoral Approach to Youth Violence Prevention.

Comprehensive approaches to youth violence prevention are needed to simultaneously address multiple risk factors across socioecological levels. ThrYve (Together Helping Reduce Youth Violence for Equity) is a collaborative initiative focused on addressing broader factors influencing youth violence, including social determinants of health. Using a participatory approach, the development of ThrYve is examined through an empirical case study. Through a Systems Advisory Board (SAB), ThrYve deploys multiple strategies that support cross-sector collaboration involving over 40 partners across 13 community sectors. Based on the Institute of Medicine's model for public health action in communities, the SAB identified 87 change levers (i.e., program, policy, practice changes) to support community and systems-level improvements. As a result of the collaborative process, in the first couple of years, ThrYve facilitated 85 community actions and changes across sectors. The changes aligned with identified risk and resilience needs of the youth served in the community. The findings further support prior research, which suggests disparities related to gender may influence risk and resilience factors for youth violence. The study also indicates the importance of continuing to examine academic performance as a factor related to youth resilience.

Examining the contributions of a community coalition in addressing urban health determinants.

Community coalitions facilitate changes in community outcomes and conditions by addressing issues and determinants of health and well-being. The purpose of the present study was to examine the process of a community coalition, the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council (INC), in addressing community-prioritized urban health determinants aimed at improving living conditions in a neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. Using an empirical case study design, the implementation of the community change framework supported through the Kauffman Neighborhood Initiative is examined. The results suggest that the INC was effective in implementing 117 community changes, and these changes were associated with modest improvements in targeted outcomes related to housing and crime. A 10 year follow-up probe indicates that the majority of recurring community changes were sustained. The results indicate that the comprehensive community initiative was important in facilitating community change that may have contributed to improvements in addressing urban health determinants.

Improving Community Readiness for Change through Coalition Capacity Building: Evidence from a Multi-Site Intervention.

Often, community coalitions are facilitators of community-level changes when addressing underage drinking. Although studies have shown that enhancing coalition capacity is related to improved internal functioning, the relationship between enhanced capacity and community readiness for change is not well established. The present study used a pretest-posttest design to examine whether enhancing coalition capacity through training and technical assistance was associated with improved community readiness and coalition-facilitated community-level changes. Seven Kansas communities engaged in an intensive capacity building intervention through implementation of the Strategic Prevention Framework. The results indicated strong correlations between increased coalition capacity, changes in community readiness stages, and the number of community changes facilitated. The results suggest that strengthening coalition capacity through training and technical assistance may improve community readiness for change and enable the implementation of community-wide program and environmental changes.

Conceptualizing a Public Health Prevention Intervention for Bridging the 30 Million Word Gap.

Early childhood experience is a social determinant of children's health and well-being. The well-being of young children is founded on their relationships and interactions with parents and family members in the home, caregivers, and teachers in early education, and friends and families in the greater community. Unfortunately, the early language experience of infants and toddlers from low-income families is typically vastly different than children from middle- and higher-income families. Hart and Risley (Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Brookes, Baltimore, 1995) described a "30 Million Word Gap" experienced by age four for children from poor families compared to economically advantaged families as measured by the number of words delivered by adults in the home to their children. This discrepancy between groups is associated with a deficit in vocabulary growth over time (Hart and Risley in Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Brookes, Baltimore, 1995; in The social world of children learning to talk. Brookes, Baltimore, MD, 1999; in Am Educ (Spring), 1-9. http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1317532.files/09-10/Hart-Risley-2003.pdf , 2003), and readiness when they enter preschool and kindergarten compared to their more advantaged classmates. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a population-level public health prevention approach to research addressing the harmful impacts of the Word Gap. The approach includes use of evidence-based practices to improve children's language environments to foster their early language and literacy learning in early childhood. After a brief review of the Word Gap, we discuss four aspects: a conceptual framework, a community leadership team as driver of the local intervention, evidence-based language interventions for reducing the gap and promoting child language, and the measurements needed. Implications are discussed.

Reducing Binge Drinking in Adolescents through Implementation of the Strategic Prevention Framework.

The Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is a conceptual model that supports coalition-driven efforts to address underage drinking and related consequences. Although the SPF has been promoted by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and implemented in multiple U.S. states and territories, there is limited research on the SPF's effectiveness on improving targeted outcomes and associated influencing factors. The present quasi-experimental study examines the effects of SPF implementation on binge drinking and enforcement of existing underage drinking laws as an influencing factor. The intervention group encompassed 11 school districts that were implementing the SPF with local prevention coalitions across eight Kansas communities. The comparison group consisted of 14 school districts that were matched based on demographic variables. The intervention districts collectively facilitated 137 community-level changes, including new or modified programs, policies, and practices. SPF implementation supported significant improvements in binge drinking and enforcement outcomes over time (p < .001), although there were no significant differences in improvements between the intervention and matched comparison groups (p > .05). Overall, the findings provide a basis for guiding future research and community-based prevention practice in implementing and evaluating the SPF.

An empirical case study of the effects of training and technical assistance on community coalition functioning and sustainability.

The case study analyzes the effects of training and technical assistance on the amount of community changes facilitated by members of a community coalition to prevent adolescent substance use. The study examines the sustainability of these changes in the community over time. The coalition implemented a Community Change Intervention that focused on building coalition capacity to support implementation of community changes-program, policy, and practice changes. Over the 2-year intervention period, there were 36 community changes facilitated by the coalition to reduce risk for adolescent substance use. Results showed that the coalition facilitated an average of at least 3 times as many community changes (i.e., program, policy and practice changes) per month following the intervention. Action planning was found to have accelerated the rate of community changes implemented by the coalition. After the intervention there was increased implementation of three key prioritized coalition processes: Documenting Progress/Using Feedback, Making Outcomes Matter, and Sustaining the Work. A 1-year probe following the study showed that the majority of the community changes were sustained. Factors associated with the sustainability of changes included the continued development of collaborative partnerships and securing multiyear funding.

Participatory research and capacity building for community health and development.

This report describes engagement of the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas in pursuing its mission of collaborative research, teaching, and public service. In research, this team uses capabilities for community measurement to help discover factors and conditions that affect community change and improvement. In teaching and training, it prepares new generations of leadership for collaborative research and community practice. As part of its public service mission, the team serves as home base for the Community Tool Box, the largest Web resource of its kind for community building. This work reflects the two-fold aim of engaged scholarship: to contribute to understanding about what affects community health and development and to apply that knowledge to assure conditions that promote well-being for all those living in our communities.

Supporting a community-based participatory evaluation approach to violence prevention in Kansas City.

Disparities in rates of firearm-related homicide exist for some segments of the population and by geographic area. There are interrelated factors across multiple social-ecological levels that increase the risk of violence for some individuals and groups, which may suggest the importance of comprehensive community intervention approaches for addressing violence. Participatory approaches can aid in the implementation of community interventions by engaging community and researcher partners in collaboratively addressing community-identified concerns. The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the application of a participatory evaluation framework used to support the Aim4Peace Violence Prevention Project in Kansas City, Missouri. The study presents data from the second year of program implementation to examine the contributions of the program in addressing violence.

Enhancing the capacity of substance abuse prevention coalitions through training and technical assistance.

Community capacity may be enhanced through intermediary supports that provide training and technical assistance (TA). This study used a randomized pre/posttest design to assess the impact of training and TA on coalition capacity. Seven community coalitions from the Midwest participated in the 2-year study, which included 36 hours of training, followed by monthly TA calls to support action planning implementation for prioritized processes. Collaborative processes most commonly identified as high-need areas for TA were Developing Organizational Structure, Documenting Progress, Making Outcomes Matter, and Sustaining the Work. Based on a coalition survey, the average change for processes prioritized through TA across all seven coalitions was .27 (SD = .29), while the average change for non-prioritized processes was .09 (SD = .20) (t(6) = 4.86, p = .003, d = 1.84). The findings from this study suggest that TA can increase coalition capacity for implementing collaborative processes using a participatory approach.

Building multisectoral partnerships for population health and health equity.

Poor performance in achieving population health goals is well-noted - approximately 10% of public health measures tracked are met. Less well-understood is how to create conditions that produce these goals. This article examines some of the factors that contribute to this poor performance, such as lack of shared responsibility for outcomes, lack of cooperation and collaboration, and limited understanding of what works. It also considers challenges to engaging stakeholders at multiple ecologic levels in building collaborative partnerships for population health. Grounded in the Institute of Medicine framework for collaborative public health action, it outlines 12 key processes for effecting change and improvement, such as analyzing information, establishing a vision and mission, using strategic and action plans, developing effective leadership, documenting progress and using feedback, and making outcomes matter. The article concludes with recommendations for strengthening collaborative partnerships for population health and health equity.

A case study of use of data for participatory evaluation within a statewide system to prevent substance abuse.

Although evaluation is considered an essential component of community health initiatives, its function requires actual use of the data to inform practice. The purpose of this case study was to examine how often and in what ways practitioners in a state system for substance abuse prevention used participatory evaluation data. To assess uses of data, interviews and surveys (N = 13) were conducted with practitioners. Questions focused on the frequency of use for several functions of evaluation data. Results showed that 77% of participants reported using their data within the past 30 days to review progress of the initiative, and 64% had used the data to communicate successes or needed improvement to staff. Fewer participants indicated they had used the data to communicate accomplishments to stakeholders (54%) or to make adjustments to plans (38%). This study suggests that participatory evaluation data can have multiple functions and uses for community health practitioners.

Differential effects of strategic planning on community change in two urban neighborhood coalitions.

Community coalitions represent a promising approach for addressing the interrelated and multiply- determined issues affecting urban neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. The literature suggests a number of community processes that may affect coalition efforts to change and improve communities. This study uses an interrupted time-series design to examine the effects of a strategic planning intervention on community change in two urban neighborhoods in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Results showed that strategic planning was associated with increased rates of community change in the two urban neighborhood coalitions. Under appropriate conditions, such as the presence of consistent leadership, strategic planning may be a particularly effective mechanism for stimulating community change and addressing locally-determined goals in urban neighborhoods.

A framework for community mobilization to promote healthy youth development.

In community mobilization to prevent youth violence, local people take action to create conditions under which youth are healthy and safe. This manuscript outlines a framework for supporting and evaluating community mobilization to promote healthy youth development as an approach to preventing youth violence. The framework highlights 12 key community processes to facilitate change and improvement. A descriptive case study of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council Youth Project (INCYP) is used to illustrate the application of this framework in an inner-city, predominantly African-American neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. Data are presented on community change (i.e., new or modified programs, policies, and practices) facilitated by the INCYP between 2001 and 2003, as an intermediate measure used to assess the mobilization effort. The INCYP facilitated 26 community changes during the project period, and was an effective catalyst for mobilizing the community to support change in outcomes and conditions that support healthy youth development. This case study suggests the importance of early and ongoing engagement of youth as change agents in the community mobilization effort.