The Firearm-Related Harm and Violence Prevention Program Office
In 2024, Trailhead launched a Firearm-Related Harm and Violence Prevention (FHVP) Program Office focused on building a sustained and responsive multi-sector movement to prevent firearm-related death and injury in Colorado through a public health approach.
FHVP formed with the vision that each community that struggles with firearm-related harm has the tools, knowledge, and community-level partnerships to implement strategic public health strategies to reduce and prevent firearm-related harm and violence.
In 2023, Colorado’s Public Health Roundtable on Firearm-Related Violence Prevention brought together nearly 100 community leaders, researchers, public health experts, and health care providers to build an effective community-based approach to firearm harm prevention in Colorado. Overwhelmingly, the community present at the convening named the need for developing infrastructure and collaborative community funding as essential keys to success to ensure that the wealth of strategies identified within the public health approach are not only acted upon, but sustained well into the future.
FHVP was incubated to meet this call to action. In its pilot year, the program office served as an apolitical strategic partner for carrying this work forward into communities.
Efforts to effectively reduce firearm-related death and injury require that we foster bipartisan cooperation and empower collaboration between systems and communities who are impacted by firearm-related harm.
Through authentic community engagement, the program office worked to strengthen coordination across communities, governmental entities, academic institutions, private sector partners, and philanthropic leaders to enact evidenced-based strategies for preventing harm from firearms and address the root cause of different types of firearm-related death and injury.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization outline a public health approach to harm and violence prevention based on four steps:
- Define and monitor the problem through systematic data collection.
- Identify risk and protective factors specific to why harm and violence occurs and who it affects.
- Develop and test prevention strategies, including evaluating interventions to see what works.
- Ensure widespread adoption of effective strategies.
Learn more about public health approach to prevent firearm harm through the Colorado Gun Violence Prevention Resource Bank.
A Roadmap for Transformative Action
Following Colorado’s 2023 Public Health Roundtable on Firearm-Related Violence Prevention, Wellstone Collaborative Strategies and Trailhead Institute produced a summary report presenting a comprehensive understanding of how firearm-related death and injury impact people living in Colorado. The report introduced a population-level approach informed by a statewide, cross-sector collaborative of experts to address the factors that contribute to and protect communities from firearm harm.
The summary report is intended to support the work of community leaders, researchers, public health professionals, healthcare providers, funders, and all those working to prevent firearm-related death and injury in identifying opportunities for action and implementing necessary change across Colorado communities.
We’re grateful to our partners at Colorado Health Institute who provided analysis support, and to many roundtable attendees who supported the report with their review.
The Program Office’s Pilot Year
In the pilot year, FHVP brought together leaders from communities, academia, government, public health, and philanthropy to strengthen statewide efforts to reduce firearm-related harm in Colorado. In October 2024, FHVP hosted the second Public Health Roundtable on Firearm-Related Harm and Violence Prevention. The Roundtable again focused on identify critical gaps and opportunities across the field of firearm-related harm and violence prevention, while advocating for firearm-related harm prevention efforts to be more responsive to community needs.