Over 1 billion children are victims of violence every year and many more suffer physically and psychologically from living in violent communities and homes. Violence also stands as a major barrier to community progress – entrenching poverty, exacerbating racism, disrupting education, and undermining community development and local economies.

A new scientific understanding of violence is emerging which recognises that violent behaviours are formed through a contagious process and influenced by social and environmental factors. Recently, many communities have implemented health-based approaches which utilise contagion theory to detect and prevent violence.

In this EPLO Brown Bag Lunch discussion, Charlie Ransford will talk about a new movement which has brought together more than 70 organisations to change fundamentally the approach to violence to a health understanding and to design health systems to drastically reduce violence in all forms.

Charlie Ransford is Director of Science and Policy for Cure Violence, leading the organisation’s movement to make violence a health issue and overseeing all research. Cure Violence is an NGO which has successfully worked to reduce violence by using a model based on the understanding that violence behaves like a contagious disease.

Participants are welcome to bring their own lunch and EPLO will provide tea and coffee.

Please RSVP to Susanne Wander if you would like to participate.