Enhancing the CIV-R Response to Victimization; Strengthening the Relationship Between BRAVE and SNUG in Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York, like many cities around the country, has experienced a massive increase in violent shootings over the past two years. The trauma of the city’s gun violence epidemic was further exacerbated when, on May 14, 2022, a self-described white supremacist murdered 10 Black people at a local grocery store. This despicable event, combined with a community already traumatized by the dual pandemics of violence and COVID-19, has led to the proposed project – a collaboration between the region’s only two trauma centers, Erie County Medical Center and Oishei Children’s Hospital with support from the University Of Buffalo School of Social Work. The goal for the project is to strengthen the link between ECMC’s HVIP, BRAVE with the community based violence response program, SNUG. Specifically, the proposed project seeks to build and expand on work started by previous funding that sought to improve the process and data collection of SNUG. Through the project, the link between BRAVE and SNUG will be strengthened by (1) creating a hybrid position to serve as a liaison between the two programs, (2) training medical staff in victim-centered, trauma-informed, culturally relevant approaches that increase the likelihood of the uptake of services among victims of violence, and (3) improving documentation methods. The proposed project fills a critical gap by 1) exploring the link between hospital-based services and community-based violence intervention programs, (2) exploring the impact of training on the level of uptake of services among victims of violence, and (3) the effect of training on improved documentation and data quality.