The Winnebago County Health Department has identified health priorities every five years since 1999. Maternal and Child Health, Mental/Behavioral Health, and Violence Prevention have been top health priorities for the past two assessment cycles. The reduction of violence as a public health issue relies on the mobilization and alignment of community partnerships to address the risk factors for collective impact.
Violence Reduction Workgroup
The Winnebago County Health Department leads the Violence Reduction Workgroup, a collaboration of partners working to decrease the incidence of personal, family, and community violence with targeted focus on areas suffering from unequal rates of violent acts.
The workgroup aligns resources and broadens community support with targeted efforts such as judicial practices, employment practices, and school and housing policies that provide opportunities to address violence in the larger community. One major initiative of this workgroup is for the community to become trauma informed. Trauma is an underlying cause of violence in the community and trauma can be addressed by implementing policies and practices to create a resilient community.
Trauma Informed Community
A trauma informed community recognizes the signs of trauma and works collectively to address it by empowering residents, building healthy relationships, implementing trauma informed policies and practices, reducing re-traumatization through agency collaboration, and providing support services.
Click here to learn more about becoming a trauma informed community.
