Resilience Research Centre

Cease Fire

2013 - 2017

With funding from Public Safety Canada, the CeaseFire program operated in the northern HRM region under the Cure Violence model developed out of Chicago. A staff of youth workers reached out to and worked with young African Nova Scotian youth aged 16-24 who had been involved with the law and/or were involved in or at risk of gun violence. In adopting an Africentric approach, the program also worked to instill cultural importance in the youth alongside the Cure Violence model’s strategy.

CeaseFire in the HRM – Building a Nova Scotian Approach (CeaseFire) was a four-year pilot project funded by Public Safety Canada that targeted high-risk youth and young adults aged 16-24 of African Nova Scotian heritage who were involved in or at risk of gun violenceOf the program’s 101 clients, 54% were designated as high-risk. CeaseFire used a three-part strategy of violence interruption, outreach workand community mobilization, as well as an Africentric approach, to address issues of interpersonal violence in Dartmouth and surrounding Northern Halifax regions. 

The RRC conducted a four-year evaluation from October 2013 to December 2017 using mixed-methods and cost-analysis assessment with a pre-, mid-, and post-test design. Quantitative data were collected from a compendium of self-report measures completed by CeaseFire clients, and qualitative data were collected from interviews and focus groups with CeaseFire youth participants, staff members, and stakeholders, and a review of CeaseFire client records. The comparative case studies methodology was also utilized in this evaluation, which involved an analysis and comparison of specific clients’ quantitative and qualitative data to compare patterns, and offer reasons for why the intervention worked or failed to work among certain individuals.   

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Resilience, Adaptive Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice (2021)

Processes of post-war reconstruction, peacebuilding and reconciliation are partly about fostering stability and adaptive capacity across different social systems. Nevertheless, these processes have seldom been expressly discussed within a resilience framework. Similarly, although the goals of transitional justice – among them (re)establishing the rule of law, delivering justice and aiding reconciliation – implicitly encompass a resilience element, transitional justice has not been explicitly theorised as a process for building resilience in communities and societies that have suffered large-scale violence and human rights violations. The chapters in this unique volume theoretically and empirically explore the concept of resilience in diverse societies that have experienced mass violence and human rights abuses. They analyse the extent to which transitional justice processes have – and can – contribute to resilience and how, in so doing, they can foster adaptive peacebuilding. This book is available as Open Access.

Resilience, Adaptive Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice (2021)

Processes of post-war reconstruction, peacebuilding and reconciliation are partly about fostering stability and adaptive capacity across different social systems. Nevertheless, these processes have seldom been expressly discussed within a resilience framework. Similarly, although the goals of transitional justice – among them (re)establishing the rule of law, delivering justice and aiding reconciliation – implicitly encompass a resilience element, transitional justice has not been explicitly theorised as a process for building resilience in communities and societies that have suffered large-scale violence and human rights violations. The chapters in this unique volume theoretically and empirically explore the concept of resilience in diverse societies that have experienced mass violence and human rights abuses. They analyse the extent to which transitional justice processes have – and can – contribute to resilience and how, in so doing, they can foster adaptive peacebuilding. This book is available as Open Access.

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