Supporting Maryland’s Gun Violence Prevention Efforts
IPHI partnered with Maryland public health and violence prevention leaders to engage diverse rural and urban communities, identify key challenges and trusted messengers, and translate community insights into strategies to strengthen gun violence prevention across the state.
Building Trust Across Diverse Communities: Supporting Maryland’s Gun Violence Prevention Efforts
IPHI partnered with the Maryland Program for Gun Violence Prevention (MPGV) and the Maryland Department of Health’s Center for Firearm Violence Prevention to strengthen community engagement around gun violence prevention. IPHI helped design a statewide survey and focus group protocol, then administered 22 listening sessions (11 rural, 11 urban) alongside an 86-respondent survey reaching community-based organizations, advocacy groups, public health institutions, government agencies, and survivor-serving partners.
The analysis results revealed both shared and distinct challenges across the state.
- Statewide, respondents pointed to unmet mental health needs, economic instability, and easy firearm access as the biggest drivers of violence, and named trusted, credible community messengers as key to building trust.
- Rural communities emphasized firearm suicide and youth gun access, with safe storage messaging landing best through gun shops, veterans, libraries, and faith communities.
- Urban communities focused on community and interpersonal violence, retaliation cycles, and youth involvement, with top needs centered on housing, employment, and trauma-informed survivor support.
Across both settings, short-term, competitive grant funding emerged as the biggest barrier to sustained prevention work. These findings and recommendations were compiled into a final report for MPGV and MDH.
IPHI also helped plan the Building a Safer Maryland Summit in summer 2026. During the summit, IPHI presented the findings and facilitated a breakout session on building trust across diverse communities. This work reflects IPHI’s ongoing commitment to centering community voice in public health and violence prevention strategy.
To learn more about Supporting Maryland’s Gun Violence Prevention Efforts and the methodology of this initiative, please contact Joanna Davis at [email protected].