The Texas Council on Family Violence named the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) the winner of its 2022 Texas Partner for Change award. 

The award recognizes an organization whose partnerships and efforts have given voice to violence prevention and have inspired systemic or community-wide change across the state of Texas.

“We are especially grateful that prevention science and our prevention work are being recognized,” said Dr. Jeff Temple, director of the center. “Prevention is not ‘sexy’ and not politically expedient, but it is the most efficient and cost-effective method to improving the lives and wellbeing of all citizens.”

The center continues to impact communities and policies throughout the state and nation.

“The Center for Violence Prevention is a longtime partner of the Texas Council on Family Violence,” said Roy Rios, prevention director for the council. “Notably, the center worked with TCFV to help spearhead the development of the Texas State Plan in 2019, contributing greatly to the massive survivor-centered research project, including a specific report on the needs of young adult female survivors.”

The center’s research helped the council create a comprehensive map of the needs and resources available to survivors in Texas, Rios said.  Some of that research contributed to an evidence-based healthy relationships and violence prevention curriculum—The Fourth R—that the center has implemented and evaluated throughout Texas. 

“We are moving from understanding what predicts violence to actually knowing how to prevent it,” Temple said. “We will continue fighting for minoritized communities and for structural change, while also making sure that communities throughout our state and country are provided with the resources and knowledge to implement effective violence prevention programming.”