Alive & Free: A Public Health Approach to Urban Youth Violence Prevention

Abstract

My project explored the subject of urban youth violence prevention using a public health approach. I examined the Alive & Free program as a model example of this approach in practice. Understanding root causes is fundamental to the public health approach and I drew from Elijah Anderson’s Street Code Theory to explain youth violence causation. Street Code Theory suggests that among young inner-city youth, especially males, there are certain rules and norms that define and govern success. This “code” and its rules often involve violence and thus must be be addressed in violence prevention.