The Challenge
In July 2023, a mass shooting in the Kingsessing neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia claimed the lives of five people and injured four more. In the years since, the community has continued to experience a high degree of violence and remains in need of significant support, including opportunities for collective healing, community engagement, and strengthened service provision and access. The Kingsessing Heals Community Resilience Center was established to provide a healing space where those impacted by mass violence can access the support and services they need.
The Project
Through this Emerging Leader Fellowship, Jordan Burton will work with Kingsessing Heals to develop a comprehensive, culturally responsive evaluation framework for its Community Resilience Model. The evaluation will employ a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative metrics with qualitative data, including community narratives, oral histories, and participatory action research. The evaluation tools will honor community members’ knowledge and cultural practices while also measuring key mental wellness and healing indicators in Southwest Philadelphia.
Specifically, this Fellowship will enable Jordan to:
- Assess community-level protective factors, including how the Community Resilience Model’s emphasis on collective healing, emotional regulation skills, and social cohesion helps reduce the impact of trauma as a result of gun violence. The Fellow will document the individual and community-wide impacts of trauma-informed and strengths-based engagement programming.
- Develop and implement a culturally responsive evaluation framework that meaningfully captures the Community Resilience Model’s quantitative and qualitative impacts, with special attention to community voices and knowledge systems in the research design and data collection process.
- Build capacity within Kingsessing Heals to conduct ongoing program evaluation, including training staff and community members in participatory feedback methods, data analysis, and storytelling techniques that can track program outcomes beyond the fellowship.
