NIJ Community Violence Intervention Research and Evaluation Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Center

The Urban Institute, in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, and the California Partnership for Safe Communities, will establish and host a new NIJ Community Violence Intervention Research and Evaluation Training and Technical Assistance Center in cooperation with the National Institute of Justice. The Center will support the Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative FY 2022 and FY 2023 grantees in evaluation capacity-building, establishing successful research and practitioner partnerships, measuring and demonstrating community impacts, and contributing to a larger body of evidence regarding what works to prevent and respond to community and gun violence. The Center’s design organizes the effort around four tasks: (1) robust project management to coordinate among the project staff and partners delivering TTA to the grantees, other funded CVIPI TTA and capacity-building partners, and to work consistently and cooperatively with NIJ; (2) comprehensive assessment of grantee needs and guide feedback on their measurement and evaluation frameworks and approaches; (3) multi-component TTA approaches including foundational training in core concepts for all grantees, individual engagement to support grantee progress, and a peer-learning pod approach for grantees interested in and ready to delve deeper into specific priority areas; and (4) translation and dissemination of promising practices and lessons learned for broader audiences via case studies, toolkits, a web feature and other audience-tailored vehicles.