Things I Have Seen and Heard: How Educators, Youth Workers and Elected Leaders Can Help Reduce the Damage of Childhood Exposure to Violence in Communities

Candice Player and Susan Eaton

Even as violent crime declines across the nation, children who live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty continue to be exposed to high levels of violence in their communities. Not until fairly recently, though, has a research consensus formed to help us understand far-reaching effects of neighborhood violence exposure and direct us toward promising solutions to reduce its damage to young people. This brief from the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice summarizes and translates this research into usable form. We offer concrete recommendations and action steps for the many men and women committed to increasing opportunity and life chances for children who live in disenfranchised neighborhoods where violence is commonplace.