Community Violence Intervention Focus of Pediatrics Event
Published May 17, 2023
Social work professor Christopher St. Vil (left) delivers the keynote presentation at the second Community Advocacy Conference, hosted by the Department of Pediatrics residency program and held at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Photo: Sandra Kicman
UB faculty member Sarah J. Ventre opened the second Community Advocacy Conference by talking about the first such event, which took place last year.
She talked about how pediatric residents, faculty and students connected with members of community organizations, and about the ideals they discussed and the “high hopes” they had for mitigating health care disparities in Western New York through engagement and collaboration.
“It was May 13th,” recalled Ventre, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics, a physician with UBMD Pediatrics and conference organizer, nodding in response to the audible gasp that came from the audience. The next day, the racist massacre at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue took place, which, she said, sent the entire community “into survival mode.”
The community is still dealing with the aftermath of the collective trauma of that event on May 14. But, Ventre noted, that trauma happens every day in marginalized neighborhoods and much of it is preventable. That was the focus of the conference’s keynote presentation by Christopher St. Vil, assistant professor in the School of Social Work. His talk was titled “All Hands on Deck: Implementing a Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem in Buffalo, N.Y., Grounded in a Multidisciplinary Approach.”
The conference, hosted by the Department of Pediatrics residency program, took place on May 5 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. About 100 medical residents, faculty, students, and community leaders and organizers attended in person, with about 45 more participating online.
St. Vil’s research focuses on trauma and the experiences of victims of violent injury, and he began his talk with sobering statistics that reflect the magnitude of the problem of gun violence in the United States. In this country, the sheer number of guns outnumber people and the nation’s homicide rate is estimated to be eight times greater than Canada’s and 22 times greater than those of Europe and Australia. (Story from UBNow)