title: Methods for linking community views to measureable outcomes in a youth violence prevention program.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  All parties in community-academic partnerships have a vested interest prevention program success. Markers of success that reflect community's experiences of programmatic prevention success are not always measurable, but critically speak to community-defined needs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this manuscript was to (1) describe our systematic process for linking locally relevant community views (community-defined indicators) to measurable outcomes in the context of a youth violence prevention program and (2) discuss lessons learned, next steps, and recommendations for others trying to replicate a similar process.
  
  
  METHODS
  A research team composed of both academic and community researchers conducted a systematic process of matching community-defined indicators of youth violence prevention programmatic success to standardized youth survey items being administered in the course of a program evaluation. The research team of three community partners and five academic partners considered 43 community-defined indicators and 208 items from the youth surveys being utilized within the context of a community-based aggression prevention program. At the end of the matching process, 92 youth survey items were identified and agreed upon as potential matches to 11 of the community-defined indicators.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We applied rigorous action steps to match community-defined indicators to survey data collected in the youth violence prevention intervention. We learned important lessons that inform recommendations for others interested in such endeavors. The process used to derive and assess community-defined indicators of success emphasized the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and use of existing and available data to reduce participant burden.
authors.affiliation: Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center.
authors.forename: Catherine C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Therese S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Richmond
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Alia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Charles C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Branas
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Tenhave
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Vaughn
authors.forename: Stephen S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Leff
authors.forename: Alice J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Hausman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003256:Community Participation / Q000379:methods; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control*