title: Greater than the sum of their parts: the benefits of Youth Violence Prevention Centers.
abstract: Academic Centers for Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention (ACE), which support a broad range of activities over and above RO1-type research projects, can add significantly to a community's capacity to respond to youth violence. We use the example of the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center to describe the types of research-practice collaborations these centers can promote, as well as the ways in which these collaborations can foster adoption of program planning, development, implementation and evaluation practices consistent with evidence-based approaches to youth violence prevention. Throughout, we describe the ways in which the existence of a center led, under the ACE format, to research, policy and practice opportunities that would not have existed in the absence of a center.
authors.affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management, Boston, MA 02115, USA. azrael@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Azrael
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hemenway
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001900:Boston; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000517:prevention & control; D009111:Local Government; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control*