Chicago Violence Intervention Worker Study

N3 is working with research partner University at Albany, SUNY, and local Community Violence Intervention (CVI) (or “street outreach”) leaders to conduct the Violence Intervention Worker Study (VIeWS), a phone-based pilot survey of nearly all violence intervention workers, or street outreach professionals, in Chicago. The survey was co-developed with a network of Chicago-based street outreach organizational partners with whom the research team has longstanding relationships.

The survey will:

• Develop foundational knowledge about street outreach worker backgrounds and demographics, life histories, human and social capital, relationships with clients and neighborhoods, work organization and supervision, family and home life, impact of Covid-19, and exposure to trauma and substance use.
• Identify broad trends in the backgrounds and careers of Chicago’s street outreach workers and potential avenues for improving the professional experience of street outreach work in order to better meet the needs of the outreach workers themselves.

The study team hopes to use findings gleaned from this study to develop a multi-site and longitudinal study of violence intervention workers across the United States.

This survey will generate a first-of-its-kind understanding of the lives,  professional experiences, and backgrounds of the street outreach workers who play such a pivotal role in violence prevention in Chicago.

To learn more about this project, please download N3’s two-pager on the project

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