White House Conference: A National Dialogue on

Violence Prevention to Protect Our Children

The Avielle Foundation and its partners are calling on the President and Congress to convene
a White House Conference: National Dialogue on Violence Prevention to Protect Our
Children (WHC) in 2016 emphasizing a public health approach. In the three years since the
murder of our beautiful six year old daughter, Avielle, and 19 of her friends and classmates
and 6 of her educators in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre here in Newtown, CT,
our heartbreak has been repeated with over 140 school shootings in the United States, not
to mention the daily occurrences of homicide and suicide on our streets and in our homes.
Violence, and gun violence in particular, is an epidemic that plagues our country, especially
its children. According to the CDCs National Violent Death Reporting System, 156 people die
by violence every day (that is one person every 10 minutes). There are an unacceptable
number of children who are victims of violence. It is estimated that more than 1 billion
children, half of the children in the world, are victims of violence every year (CDC, 2015).
Children under 15 make up about 8% of homicides globally, approximately 36,000 victims
in 2012 (UDODC, 2013), and children up to 8 years old account for nearly 3% of homicides
in the United States (FBI UCR, 2013). At the very least, every year, 61% of our nations
children are exposed to violence (U.S. Department of Justice National Survey of Childrens
Exposure to Violence, 2009).
President Obamas recent announcement of executive actions designed to reduce gun
violence was an important step as was the Executive Branchs support of brain science
through the Office of Science and Technology Policys BRAIN Initiative. President Obamas
commitment to violence prevention is self-evident. Clearly, our leaders have a moral
imperative to protect our children. A bold vision and concrete steps are crucial to addressing
violence in our Nation.

Here we feel there is a critically unmet need for the financial and political support of public
health research and the public health interventions necessary to identify, prevent, and cure
the epidemic of violence in our Nation. A White House Conference is imperative to bring
together a multiplicity of constituencies to identify the steps to address this profound threat
to the safety and well-being of our children. NOW is the time to convene interested parties,
key stakeholders, and experts into a national dialogue that approaches violence from a public
health viewpoint and makes violence prevention and protecting our children a national
priority. Every childs right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be
safeguarded.

We are calling for a national dialogue on violence prevention to protect our children, with a
public health focus and spotlight on research to understand violence prevention and
violence etiology. A public health approach emphasizes prevention and the social
determinants of health (e.g. race, poverty), uses epidemiologic methods to improve
outcomes, and adopts a multidisciplinary approach to establish collaboration between a
The Avielle Foundation, Inc || PO Box 686, Newtown, CT 06470 || (Ph) 203-304-1733
www.aviellefoundation.org || EIN 46-1864791

variety of stakeholders, key players, and impacted persons. Such an approach towards
violence prevention has enormous promise for a safer America, yet this framework is highly
underutilized and under recognized. As well, research is critical to forward movement in
violence prevention. This White House Conference would bring together experts in the fields
of public health, neurosciences, infectious disease and epidemic control, health care,
psychology, sociology, law enforcement, education, policy, criminal justice, and the law. It
will provide a means to identify the gaps in knowledge, set forth a research agenda, identify
current successful evidence-based interventions, and create the framework for building safe
and compassionate communities.
PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

In the three years since our daughters murder and the creation of the Avielle Foundation,
we have had many valuable conversations about how we can reframe our approach to
preventing violence and building compassion with experts in many fields. There is a clear,
unmet need and profound desire to focus on bridging the sciences to prevent violence and
build safe, compassionate communities. Across these conversations, the common threads
have been the lack of science and research on violence prevention and etiology (most notably
gun violence) as well as failure to both develop and implement evidence-based policies and
programs.
The WHC will summon the political will to financially support and pass legislation
supporting violence prevention research and to catalyze positive, evidence-based
interventions. It will also define the social strategy necessary to achieve positive outcomes
and define how we can work together to promote a culture of safety and health for all
children, families, and communities. This would be an incredibly innovative and rare
opportunity.
The purpose of the 2016 White House Conference: National Dialogue on Violence Prevention
to Protect Our Children is to:

Focus on restoring and renewing a childs inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness by protecting them from harm;
Identify and promote implementation of a public health approach to violence Identifying causes, preventions, interventions, and cures;
o Prioritize a research agenda that identifies and addresses knowledge gaps in the
underlying causes and risk factors of violence;
o Identify and share best practices and strategies in violence prevention and
intervention programs;
o Identify roles for the health and related sectors to take a more active role
o Identify effective financial and policy means to implement;
Garner the expertise of multiple disciplines with a common focus on violence prevention
in order to synergistically approach this critical issue;

The Avielle Foundation, Inc || PO Box 686, Newtown, CT 06470 || (Ph) 203-304-1733
www.aviellefoundation.org || EIN 46-1864791

Bringing together physicians and health care providers, public health officials,
epidemiologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, law enforcement
agents, educators, policy makers, and experts in criminal justice and the law.

This White House conference would convene the expertise, creativity, and motivation of our
experts into one place in order to advance the scientific knowledge base of violence and
violence prevention. Their combined synergy will make a difference in the lives of our
children, articulate the scientific evidence and principles to define the problems that
threaten their well-being, and guide actions toward a desired outcome. The WHC will
summon the political will to pass legislation supporting violence prevention research and
support effective efforts. It will also define the social strategy necessary to achieve positive
outcomes and define how we can work together to promote a culture of safety and health for
all children, families, and communities.
RATIONALE

The time has never been more urgent to carefully assess the myriad of complex risk factors,
problems, and challenges that result in violent behavior, compromising our childrens wellbeing daily. It is critical that we identify the etiologies of violent behavior and formulate
appropriate solutions, design appropriate interventions, enact and enforce meaningful
policies and laws, and identify critical action steps to educate individuals and mobilize
community action to keep our children safe. These action steps must include dedication to a
scientific understanding of the risk and protective factors associated with violence and
compassion; a public health approach to understanding and addressing violence; assessment
of interventions, policy and law changes; availability of health services; and the continual
exploration of novel and innovative approaches to violence prevention.

The National Dialogue on Violence Prevention to Protect Our Children will use a public health
approach to accentuate prevention and the role of social determinants of health, apply
epidemiologic methods to prevent and control adverse outcomes, and adopt a
multidisciplinary approach to establish collaboration between practitioners, pediatricians,
law enforcement, educators, government officials, communities, gun manufacturers and
parents to design effective interventions to eliminate the public health threat of violence.

The field of public health has been highly successful in recent years in reducing morbidity
and mortality from tobacco and automobile crashes, and a similar approach can also help
eliminate violence in America. Successes associated with reduced cigarette smoking-related
morbidity and mortality involved establishing clear scientific evidence that cigarettes cause
harm, setting cigarette taxes, enacting underage use laws, effective messaging, and shifts in
general attitudes towards smoking. Similarly, reductions in auto fatalities included safety
engineering for collision avoidance and reduction of injury producing forces, seat belts, car
safety seats, drivers education, safer roads, and drunk driving laws. These interventions
included primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies that holistically addressed
The Avielle Foundation, Inc || PO Box 686, Newtown, CT 06470 || (Ph) 203-304-1733
www.aviellefoundation.org || EIN 46-1864791

these issues. In similar fashion, violence is associated with risks and protective factors that
can be identified and from which public health interventions can then be designed.
RESULTS

The National Dialogue on Violence Prevention to Protect Our Children will establish common
sense actions and solutions to prevent all types of violence, and to create healthier and safer
communities for our children and their families through science / evidence-based
approaches; support for individuals and families; protecting the rights of all; investing in and
sustaining partnerships with parents, practitioners, and politicians; and, making a difference
in every community. The WHC is a critical and necessary step towards ensuring that all
children and families can enjoy the civil and Constitutional rights and essential freedoms of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to which they are entitled.
"We will live in a world in which we share responsibility. It's easy to say 'It's not my child, not my
community, not my world, not my problem. Then there are those who see the need and respond. I
consider those people my heroes." - Mister Fred Rogers
Few are guilty, but all are responsible - Abraham Heschel

"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment.
We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Jeremy

Jeremy G Richman, PhD

Founder and CEO,
The Avielle Foundation
619-384-1832 (Cell)
Jeremy.Richman@AvielleFoundation.org
www.AvielleFoundation.org

The Avielle Foundation, Inc || PO Box 686, Newtown, CT 06470 || (Ph) 203-304-1733
www.aviellefoundation.org || EIN 46-1864791

We, the undersigned, urge President Obama to convene a White House Conference entitled
A National Dialogue on Violence Prevention to Protect Our Children. NOW is the time to
convene interested parties, key stakeholders, and experts into a national dialogue that
approaches violence from a public health viewpoint and makes violence prevention and
protecting our children a national priority. Every childs right to life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness must be safeguarded. We thank you for your leadership and support of this
critical initiative:
PLEASE CLICK HERE to sign this proposal and to join us in endorsing this conference.
Jeremy G Richman, Ph.D.
Georges Benjamin, MD

Founder and CEO

Executive Director

The Avielle Foundation

American Public Health Association

The Avielle Foundation, Inc || PO Box 686, Newtown, CT 06470 || (Ph) 203-304-1733
www.aviellefoundation.org || EIN 46-1864791