In 2017, more than 19,000 people in the United States were victims of homicide and more than 1.7 million were treated in hospital emergency departments for an assault-related injury. Furthermore, youth violence is the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24.  Research and experience shows that youth violence is preventable, but it requires specific training and prevention strategies.

AIR is the lead contractor for the Violence Prevention Technical Assistance Center (VPTAC), part of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention. This comprehensive training and technical assistance center addresses sexual violence, child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, and youth violence. Launched in 2018, VPTAC is intended to connect the dots across multiple forms of violence.

Through VPTAC, AIR will build local public health departments’ infrastructure, capacity, and leadership with training and technical assistance. Using community data from multiple systems and the best available evidence, AIR will help local officials to better understand local youth violence risk and protective factors, develop comprehensive approaches, and leverage existing resources or identify new ones to help implement effective prevention strategies.  

In addition, through an interagency agreement and an optional task exercised in the VPTAC contract, AIR provides training and technical assistance to multiple Department of Defense audiences—including the headquarters of Military Services and the National Guard Bureau, department prevention workforce members, and military service academies—to support the implementation of its Prevention Plan of Action for sexual assault.