Our Program
Injury and violence to Virginians are among the leading causes of death and hospitalization in Virginia. Everyone is affected by injury and violence. Research shows that causes of injuries are often predictable, preventable, and not randomly occurring accidents.
For many decades, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Injury and Violence Prevention (IVPP) Program has continued to create, fund, and support a sustainable injury and violence prevention work throughout Virginia.
The program is currently housed within the VDH Central Office in Richmond, Virginia and lives within the Office of Family Health Services (OFHS), Divisions of Prevention and Health Promotion and Population Health Data.
In Virginia, we understand shared risk factors often present in our work across many forms of injuries and violence, such as economic instability, lack of connectedness within communities, risk of substance abuse, concerns in mental health, and issues with social norms. Organizations working together to address these strategies will improve risk for these many forms of injuries and violence through shared protective factor work. Organizations can pool together their resources, and intentionally partner together to have a broad prevention impact across communities.
The VDH IVPP work includes strategic approaches and priorities that incorporate systems and social norm changes that are data driven; and includes steps to minimize the risks of injury and violence by modifying environments, products, policies, and behaviors that facilitate or fail to prevent injury and violence.