Rise up! A Youth-Informed Video Program For Young Children To Stay Safe From Community Violence

Rise Up! A Youth-Informed Video Program To Prevent Community Violence Before The First Shot

Gun violence is the number one reason children die in the U.S. In big cities, most of these cases come from shootings related to assaults and homicides. There aren't many effective ways right now to prevent kids from either becoming victims or getting involved in gun violence themselves. This study aims to create a video program (Rise Up! Against Violence) for middle schoolers that teaches them about guns and the real-life consequences of violence. The videos will be made by high school students who have personally experienced gun violence, since they may be better able to connect with and influence younger kids. The Rise Up! program will be tested in schools in high-violence communities in Houston and Memphis.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Firearm Injury
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Rise Up! video-based program

Detailed Description

Community gun violence is the leading cause of firearm injury and death in urban youth in the United States and yet upstream primary prevention efforts are sparse. The goal of this proposal is to develop and test a novel youth-informed video-based program to effectively influence young adolescents to avoid risky behaviors leading to gun violence. Through an innovative iterative process by first seeking the perspective of youth with lived experience with gun violence regarding salient topics and messaging. Next, by garnering the valuable input and guidance of experienced community-based violence interrupters and a multidisciplinary team of other violence content experts to create a series of videos that will resonate with young adolescents. The videos will include awareness about consequences of gun use, peaceful conflict resolution skills, hope for the future, and gaining adult support, in addition to other topics. The investigators will seek community feedback to ensure relatability and cultural humility. The video series will be delivered as a program ("Rise Up Against Gun Violence") including guided discussions, and will be implemented and rigorously tested in diverse community settings in high-risk neighborhoods in Houston and Memphis. The investigators hypothesize that the program, developed using a holistic and community-based approach, will influence adolescent attitudes, awareness, and behavior change regarding violent conflict and gun carrying, and ultimately change social norms regarding risks of gun use. This is an upstream and novel prevention strategy for community gun violence.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 600
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Galveston, Texas, United States, 77555
      • The University of Texas Medical Branch

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children between 11 and 15 years of age
• Residing in one of the six identified high-risk communities, with or without prior exposure to gun violence

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not fluent in English or Spanish
• Under the guardianship of Child Protective Services (CPS)
• Documented suicidal ideation at the time of screening
• Not mentally capable of providing informed assent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Sequential Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Group receiving intervention; All subjects will receive the intervention (Rise Up! video program), cluster randomized between the 6 sites.	Other: Rise Up! video-based program; Watch series of videos followed by guided discussion after each video.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Attitude change about the consequences of gun carrying and fighting	Participants will complete validated pre- and post-intervention surveys adapted from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Attitudes Toward Violence Survey, Teen Conflict Survey, and Individual Protective Factors Index. Survey items use Likert-type and frequency-based response scales to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, conflict resolution behaviors, and protective factors related to violence prevention. Higher scores indicate improved protective factors and more positive conflict resolution attitudes.	9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Bindi Naik-Mathuria, MD, MPH, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): July 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 16, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 16, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): April 23, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 30, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 25-0286; 1R01CE003772-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No