It was Planet Improv, Inc.’s honor and pleasure to be part of the planning committee for and attending “The 17th Annual Youth Violence Prevention Conference – Getting to the Root of the Problem: Understanding the Social Determinants of Violence” event on Friday, April 21, 2023, in Charlotte, NC.

It was truly inspiring to be in conference and breakout rooms filled with so many professionals and community members filled with passion for our shared youth/students, their challenges and their futures.

Futures that we are all doing our small part to help lessen the violence within them and the complicated factors that contribute to that violence.

One of the keynote speakers at the conference was Rochelle A. Dicker, MD.

Below is a brief biography from the American College of Surgeons of Dr. Dicker and the wonderful work she does to lessen the impact of violence and specifically, youth violence.

She is a truly inspiring professional and we were very fortunate to learn from and be inspired by her experiences and the anecdotes she shared during her keynote speech.

2021 Domestic Volunteer Award: Rochelle Dicker

Rochelle Dicker, MD, FACS, a trauma and critical care surgeon in Los Angeles, CA, will receive the Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award for her efforts to develop firearm injury prevention education, support for victims of firearm violence, and advocacy for firearm injury reduction-based legislation, particularly through the San Francisco Wraparound Project.

In 2001, Dr. Dicker started her fellowship in trauma at the University of California, San Francisco, and a fellowship in violence prevention with the California Wellness Foundation, during which she recognized a need for firearm injury prevention and support for victims of firearm violence as she provided clinical care to victims.

Beyond the surgical care she provides to victims of firearm violence, Dr. Dicker, professor of surgery and anesthesia, vice-chair for critical care, chief of surgical critical care, associate trauma director, University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, developed the Wraparound model, which transformed into the San Francisco Wraparound Project. The project works to reduce injury and criminal recidivism among the most vulnerable citizens of San Francisco and is based on three critical components: a public health approach for injury prevention based on evidence that addressing root causes of violence such as poverty and systemic racism to prevent future injury and incarceration, health communication and services that are culturally appropriate, and recognition that a major event like trauma provides a teachable moment.

In partnership with community-based organizations, the Wraparound Project provides services to create social capital in individuals and communities affected by violence. Some of the services provided include crisis response services along with the city’s Crisis Response Network and crisis home visits, vocational training programs via art workshops and Friends of the Urban Forest, and employment opportunities throughout the region, among others.

Dr. Dicker expanded her work from the Wraparound Project to bring the model of firearm injury prevention and support for victims to 70 hospitals around the country. As other institutions implemented the Wraparound Model, Dr. Dicker and colleagues identified an additional gap in which to further expand resources and support firearm prevention. These hospitals joined together to create the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI). HAVI fosters hospital and community collaborations to advance equitable, trauma-informed care and violence intervention and prevention programs. Recently, HAVI expanded to Europe.

A major component of Dr. Dicker’s model is education, teaching, training, and mentoring for individuals involved with firearm injury prevention. The Wraparound Project and HAVI offer a multitude of programs to ensure the success of firearm injury prevention and support for victims, educating the academic community, health practitioners, the communities surrounding San Francisco, and children in schools on topics related to violence prevention. It provides instruction to trauma centers to develop other hospital-based violence prevention programs.

Dr. Dicker also recognized the need to reframe firearm violence as a public health issue, as well as to address the social determinants of violence. Through the Wraparound Project and HAVI, Dr. Dicker has been a key participant in advocacy efforts to secure funding for the programs and to create legislative support in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the implementation and continuation of firearm injury prevention programs nationwide. She also leads the ACS Committee on Trauma Improving Social Determinants to Attenuate Violence (ISAVE) group, which is establishing a curriculum for trauma-informed care to be implemented in trauma centers, creating a guide for integrating social care into health care, and developing a roadmap for trauma centers to invest in disinvested communities heavily affected by the social determinants of health.

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When Planet Improv, Inc. was founded in 2006, it was because I had fallen in love with the artform of improvisation.

Over the following 17 years I have fallen even more deeply in love with, not only the limitless possibilities, power and transferable skills of the artform, but its’ power to, as our mission statement indicates to, “empower resilience in students through creativity.”

Planet Improv, Inc. is so very fortunate to continue to expand our partnerships/collaborations with: more students; educators; educational, mental health, violence reduction, conflict resolution, social emotional education, law enforcement, local, state, county and Federal government, arts, nonprofit agencies/organizations; communities and their leaders, employees and volunteers.

None of us, individually or as individual organizations, can tackle these seemingly insurmountable challenges, but together, we can move, proverbial mountains and be part of monumental changes in the lives of youth/students.

It is Planet Improv, Inc.’s honor to continue to be part of this ever-growing partnership.