Moving Towards a Public Health Approach to Violence Intervention

*LOCATION TBC*

How do we move violence beyond being seen solely as a policing issue and towards a genuine public health approach? How do healthcare services, policymakers, communities and policing begin to share responsibility for violence prevention? And what does it take to shift the culture within systems to recognise violence as preventable, rather than inevitable?

Join Paul Perth (Canal Communities Violence Intervention Initiative Coordinator) and Senator Lynn Ruane (Chair of the Canal Communities Violence Intervention Initiative Advisory Board) for a conversation with Karyn McCluskey, Chief Executive of Community Justice Scotland, and one of the key figures behind Scotland’s public health approach to violence reduction.

Drawing on the experience of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, this event will expl

ore:

• How Scotland developed a multi-agency approach to violence prevention
• The role of policing within a public health framework
• How health services and policymakers were brought into the conversation
• The challenges of changing institutional culture
• What lessons can Ireland learn as community violence intervention work begins to develop here

This discussion forms part of the wider Canal Communities Community-Based Public Safety Strategy and ongoing efforts to build understanding, relationships and capacity around violence prevention in Ireland.

Book your ticket here.

Karyn McCluskey is Chief Executive of Community Justice Scotland, whose aim is to drive progress in the field of community justice. Community Justice Scotland works hard to create better outcomes for people who have come into contact with the criminal justice system, their families and victims of crime.

Karyn trained as a nurse, and then in psychology. She spent 21 years working with the police and helped establish the Violence Reduction Unit in 2003 with a public health approach to preventing violence. She is a member of the WHO Violence Prevention Alliance and helped set up the Medics Against Violence charity in Scotland, which speaks to school children about violence reduction, injury and keeping safe.

She has also previously developed a plan to tackle violence for the Metropolitan Police and has published work on armed robbery teams, alcohol and violence interventions in a clinical setting and violence reduction. In addition, Karyn is a Non-Executive Director at the Scottish Professional Football League, a board member of Simon Community Scotland, a trustee of Medics Against Violence and Chair of the Centre for Justice Innovation.

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Host or Publisher Senator Lynn Ruane