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North America Regional Hub: Multi-Actor Frameworks – Prevention Initiative Workshop in Albuquerque (New Mexico, USA)

Publication Date:

23/01/2025

Content Type:

Event Reports

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Multi-Actor FrameworksSocial Cohesiontargeted violence

— 4 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the event and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Summary

Since October 2023, Strong Cities has been working with five US cities piloting a model for the development of local multi-actor prevention frameworks with support from the US Department of Homeland Security. The cities include: Albuquerque (New Mexico); Athens (Ohio); Albuquerque (Tennessee); Overland Park (Kansas); and Stamford (Connecticut).

Beginning in early 2024, Albuquerque and Strong Cities convened a working group of local stakeholders – a local leadership group – including local government, education, law enforcement, non-profit organisations, social service providers, faith leaders and community groups. The group is providing strategic direction for the production of a local framework to prevent targeted violence and other threats to social cohesion, in line with a public health approach to addressing these challenges.

After conducting a needs and vulnerabilities assessment – including a community survey soliciting input on the hate and targeted violence landscape and prevention priorities – from October through December 2024, Strong Cities met with the local leadership group to discuss findings from the assessment and to brainstorm city and community-led prevention approaches to meet those needs that could inform the local prevention framework. Workshops participants included officials from the local government, the Albuquerque Police Department and the US Attorney’s Office of the District of New Mexico, as well as representatives from Americans for Indian Opportunity, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, Congregation Albert,

New Hope Full Gospel Baptist Church, United Way of Central New Mexico, and the University of New Mexico.

Following opening remarks from Mayor Tim Keller, participants discussed the need for a collaborative forum for community groups to meet and work with local leaders to discuss targeted violence and other threats to social cohesion and strategise on taking steps to jointly address them. Community members called for the City to increase its communications to all communities about residents’ rights, what the City is doing to protect them and what resources are already available – and offered themselves and their colleagues as key community messengers that can convey those messages to their respective communities. They also noted the lack of an effective interfaith forum in Albuquerque – an issue to be addressed in the local framework. Participants highlighted a number of other priorities: empowering and engaging youth in civic efforts to help their communities and the city; incorporating targeted violence prevention objectives into local community violence intervention and school safety programmes; and working towards an appropriate provision of social services for those at risk of mobilising to violence and those violent offenders reintegrating into the community. Lastly, they highlighted the importance of sustaining efforts through sufficient financial resourcing, including from the local government and community-based and other foundations.

Key Findings and Recommendations

1. The City of Albuquerque has undergone significant demographic and economic shifts in recent years, witnessing increasing racial and ethnic diversity, with growing immigrant communities and a rise in multilingual households. This diversification has enriched Albuquerque’s cultural fabric but has also contributed to disparities in access to social services, housing and economic opportunities.
2. The City should create a collaborative forum for community groups to meet and work with local leaders to discuss concerns regarding hate, violent extremism, polarisation and other threats to social cohesion and strategise on taking steps to jointly address them. 
3. A framework should promote social cohesion through community-building efforts, particularly across faith groups; empower and engage youth in civic efforts to help their communities and the city; incorporate targeted violence prevention objectives into local community violence intervention and school safety programmes; and work towards an appropriate provision of social services for those at risk of mobilising to violence and those violent offenders reintegrating into the community.
4. Prevention efforts need to be sustained through sufficient financial resourcing, including from the local government and community-based and other foundations. 

Next Steps

Over the coming weeks, Strong Cities, the City of Albuquerque, and the local leadership group will produce an initial local prevention framework. The framework will outline the city’s prevention-related goals, key objectives and approach, including an action plan for the near- and mid-term. Strong Cities will then work with the City of Albuquerque and the local leadership group on programme implementation, while continuing to seek input from the wider community on an updated version of the framework, including key metrics and performance indicators. 

Additional Resources

• Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities website
• Innovations in Prevention: Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities Network Policy Brief, July 2024
• Insights on Developing and Operationalising Whole-of-City Prevention Frameworks, Strong Cities Network Event Report, December 2023
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism and Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated February 2025
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated January 2025

Donors and Partners

This project is funded by the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, opportunity number DHS-23-TTP-132-00-01.

Donors and Partners

For more information on this event and the Strong Cities North America Regional hub, please contact [email protected].

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