Press Release

CDC funds 10 Academic Centers for Excellence on Youth Violence

On September 27, 2000, CDC awarded $7 million to 10 colleges and universities to establish National Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth Violence. The new Academic Centers of Excellence will foster collaboration between university researchers and communities to address jointly the pressing public health problem of youth violence. Violence ranks among the top five leading causes of death for youths1 to 24 years of age.

Five universities will establish developing centers. These will focus on developing and implementing community response plans, training health care professionals and conducting small, pilot projects to evaluate effective interventions in youth violence. Developing centers will be established at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of California at San Diego, the University of California at Riverside, the University of Puerto Rico, and the University of Michigan.

Five additional institutions - Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Injury Control Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham - with established expertise in the area of youth violence were funded to establish comprehensive centers. In addition to the core activities of developing centers, these centers will conduct research into risk factors for youth violence and such subjects as the effectiveness of interventions.

"Academic Centers for Excellence on Youth Violence are not typical research institutions. They were selected because of their capacity to apply their findings, and they are distinguished by broad community support," said CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan, M.D., M.P.H.

"This innovative combination of academic excellence and community application offers our nation a unique opportunity to train tomorrow's community leaders to intervene to prevent the further growth of violence among our nation's young people," he said.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES