Researchers began a year-long study funded by a $90,000 Active Living Research grant exploring the effects of crime reduction initiatives throughout Manchester on Jan. 15, according to Director of the Prevention Research Center Ethan Berke. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded the grant to researchers from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice's Prevention Research Center and the University of New Hampshire in December, Berke said.
The research will examine the effects of the Weed and Seed strategy, a crime prevention initiative implemented in Manchester in 2000, according to Berke. Through funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Weed and Seed provides resources to municipalities to implement creative solutions to preventing local crime, he said.
Researchers at the Prevention Research Center and UNH will employ a "community-based participatory research" model during the course of the study by involving Manchester residents in the research, Berke said. Community participants will help academics gain a better understanding of how the research can benefit the local region, according to Berke.
"We came to [community members] with a general idea of what we were hoping to do and they provided a lot of input, including helping to write the grant," he said.
In Weed and Seed's dual approach, the "weed" component of the strategy focuses on investigative law enforcement, while the "seed" aspect promotes engaging the community in neighborhood restoration, according to Jaime Hoebecke, senior public health specialist at Manchester's Department of Public Health.
"Particularly at the federal level, they've realized that you can't arrest away a problem in communities," Hoebecke said. "It really has to be a community driven process that considers both law enforcement and community partnerships."
Semra Aytur, lead investigator of the study and professor of health management and policy at UNH, said the study will mix advocacy and action with the study's research goals.
"Ultimately, we want policy makers in Manchester to know what teenagers and parents feel about the efforts that are going on and we hope for other cities to learn from this as well," she said.
Manchester's approach to implementing its crime-prevention strategy allows the community to serve as an example for national efforts, according to Aytur.
"The thing that Manchester did differently with Weed and Seed is that they built a bridge with public health very early on in the process," she said.
The Weed and Seed program operates through the city's public health department, which focuses on the root causes of crime such as poverty and education. This philosophy has made Manchester more successful than other municipalities in which city officials work "in isolation" of one another, according to Aytur.
Manchester officials realize that many of the same factors that dictate crime levels also determine levels of physical and mental health in communities, according to Hoebecke.
Residents' commitment to community pride and safety impacts their overall health, Berke said.
"If neighborhoods are safer and people have the perception that their neighborhood is a better place to be, then they're more likely to be engaged in physical activity," Berke said. "They're also more likely to interact with their neighbors and build up social capital, which is good for mental and physical health and the economic vitality."
