OFVP Firearm Violence Research Group Meeting Minutes, May 20, 2025

Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Time: 9:30 am

Meeting Minutes

  1. Welcome/Roll Call/Approval of Minutes
    • Meeting Called to order @ 9:35am
    • FVRG Members Present: Joseph Hoereth, Dave Olson, Kim Smith, MaryAnn Mason
    • FVRG Members Absent: Andrew Papachristos, Soledad McGrath, Timothy Lavery
    • Other Attendees: Kevin Brown, Stephanie Jones, Ana Genkova, Roy Rothschild, Sam Theno
    • SIU Carbondale Attendees: Daniel Brown, Wasantha Jayawardene, Frank Demonte, Hannah Hou, Jen Rhodes, Jenna Jamieson, Michelle Kuhn
    • Notetaker: Jessica Cortez
    • Meeting Minutes for January 21, 2025, and March 18, 2025, are tabled due to quorum not met.
  2. Public Comment - No public comments received
  3. Discussion & Work Items
    1. OFVP Updates
    2. Update on RPSA Evaluation
      • Wasantha Jayawardene, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor - School of Human Sciences, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
    3. Quick Recap
      • The meeting began with updates from Kevin Brown on the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention's budget and new programs, followed by a presentation from Daniel Brown and Wasantha Jayawardene about their evaluation approach for a youth engagement project using the RE-AIM framework. The team discussed qualitative research conducted by Aeffect on grantee challenges and successes, along with their analysis of grantee performance and efforts to streamline metrics across different organizations. The conversation ended with discussions about the Illinois Firearm Injury Rates dashboard and plans to review violent death reduction data in future sessions.
  4. Next Steps
    1. FVRG Member Mason to work with "Megan" on developing suggestions for improving the IDPH firearm injury rates dashboard, including aggregating data quarterly and adding geographic units for larger cities outside Chicago.
    2. Facilitator Hoereth to have assistant Jessica Cortez to schedule a future meeting agenda item to review and discuss IDPH dashboards, including the updated violent death reduction dashboard.
    3. Facilitator Hoereth to ensure the Southern Illinois University evaluation team is invited to future Research Group meetings.
    4. Daniel Brown and the SIU team continue providing context and claim statements along with data in their reports to OFVP.
    5. OFVP team to consider using the IDPH firearm injury rates dashboard for more timely data on firearm violence trends in funded communities.
  5. Summary
    1. Firearm Violence Prevention Budget Update
      • The meeting, led by Facilitator Hoereth, began with a roll call that revealed a quorum was not present, preventing the group from voting on the previous meeting's minutes. Kevin Brown provided updates on the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, noting that their budget would remain at FY25 levels, with a focus on maintaining momentum in violence prevention efforts. He highlighted the success of the Back to Our Future program's revamp and the establishment of a new Flex fund to address victimization in high-violence areas. Kevin Brown also mentioned the funding of new programs, including a community mental health response led to address mass shootings, and collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools and city to enhance youth intervention strategies.
    2. Youth Project Evaluation Approach
      • The meeting focused on a presentation by Daniel Brown and Wasantha Jayawardene about their evaluation approach for a youth engagement project. Daniel Brown introduced the SIU research team, including qualitative and quantitative researchers, while Wasantha Jayawardene presented as the evaluation lead. The team's approach involves providing feedback to Kari Branham and Kevin Brown based on data analysis and process evaluation, with a focus on improving the overall project.
    3. Firearm Violence Program Evaluation Framework
      • Wasantha Jayawardene presented an overview of how Illinois evaluates firearm violence prevention programs using the RE-AIM framework, which assesses reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. He explained that the evaluation project focuses on the first four dimensions due to its three-year duration, noting that the maintenance component cannot be evaluated within this timeframe. Wasantha Jayawardene emphasized the importance of evaluating program impact to ensure accountability, identify areas for improvement, and sustain effective practices, highlighting the challenges of translating research into practice and the need for consistent data collection and analysis.
    4. Firearm Violence Prevention Research Overview
      • Michelle Kuhn presented an overview of the qualitative research conducted by Aeffect, focusing on understanding the challenges and successes of grantees in firearm violence prevention programs. She explained the research methodology, including two waves of interviews with executive directors, program leaders, and data leaders, and shared preliminary findings on delays, funding issues, and the impact of programs. The team discussed the data collection methods, sample selection process, and the representation of programs across the state. Participants asked questions about data aggregation, sample representation, and the focus on Chicago versus the rest of the state, which Michelle Kuhn addressed by describing their GIS mapping approach to ensure broad state representation.
    5. Grant Performance Analysis and Metrics
      • The team discussed their analysis of grantee performance, focusing on both individual and categorical program impacts through quantitative and qualitative methods, including document reviews and FOIA requests for incident data. They identified challenges with data collection and reporting across different grantee organizations, with some having established systems while others lack capacity, leading to efforts to streamline metrics and provide capacity building support through the Government Alliance for Safe Communities. The team is working on simplifying performance metrics from 16 to 5 key indicators and developing a unified database system, with dissemination of findings to be determined by Kevin Brown and Kari Branham's department.
    6. Program Impact Evaluation Strategies
      • The group discussed the challenges of evaluating program impact across different organizational structures and geographies, with Daniel Brown explaining how they account for varying levels of community challenges and program growth trajectories. They explored how to effectively communicate program data and impact to stakeholders, with Daniel Brown emphasizing the importance of providing context and evidence behind claims rather than just raw numbers. The discussion concluded with Daniel Brown explaining SIU's approach to being deliberate and thoughtful in their data reporting, ensuring that information released is thoroughly understood and can be confidently interpreted.
    7. Illinois Firearm Injury Dashboard Updates
      • The group discussed the Illinois Firearm Injury Rates dashboard, which provides timely data on firearm-related ER admissions. FVRG Member Olson suggested aggregating the data quarterly to better track trends in specific communities, particularly those receiving funding from the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention. FVRG Member Mason offered to work with Megan to develop recommendations for improving the dashboard's functionality. The group acknowledged the significant improvement in data availability compared to previous methods, which involved requesting annual county-level data with suppression of small numbers.
    8. Firearm Injury Data Analysis Challenges
      • The group discussed challenges with calculating firearm injury rates using emergency department visit data, particularly regarding the denominator and how it represents patient residence rather than injury location. Facilitator Hoereth expressed gratitude for the team's data sharing and evaluation approach, suggesting future discussions about injury data sources and dashboard updates. The conversation ended with plans to review the violent death reduction dashboard and new IDPH data in the next session, with the Southern Illinois team invited to participate regularly.
  6. Links shared:
    1. FVRG Member Lavery- https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/prevention-wellness/gun-safety/dashboards/il-firearm-injury-rates.html
    2. Wasantha Jayawardene- https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
  7. Proposed Next Meeting Date/Time: Tuesday, July 15, 2025, 9:30am
  8. Meeting Adjourned @ 11:00am