Violence rarely begins with a gunshot. It often begins in silence, isolation, chronic stress, unresolved trauma, and relationships where harm has become normalized. If we hope to create safer neighborhoods, our eƯorts cannot stop at the street corner. We must also confront the violence that occurs behind closed doors, where trauma often begins long before it becomes visible in our communities.
In Spokane, Washington, the Roots of Peace initiative emerges as an innovative public health approach designed to disrupt these hidden patterns. Inspired by the CURE Violence public health approach, Spokane’s Roots of Peace community violence prevention model addresses safety and transformation through five core pillars designed to Interrupt conflict, Stabilize families with vital resources, Heal trauma, Lead through education and mentorship, and Amplify positive community narratives. By treating violence not as an inevitable moral failing but as a contagious disease, this framework allows us to address the root causes of trauma and cultivate enduring peace throughout our neighborhoods.
Interrupt: Recognizing Violence as a Disease
Thinking about violence as a disease helps us understand its true burden on society. It shares similarities with both chronic illnesses like heart disease and contagious infections like the flu. According to the World Health Organization, violence-related incidents like homicide, suicide, and armed conflict claim roughly 4.4 million lives each year, accounting for about 8% of all global deaths. To put that into perspective, the top three leading causes of death in the United States as of 2026 are heart disease (683,491), cancer (619,876), and unintentional accidents (197,449).
Most violent deaths stem from everyday altercations with someone the victim knows, a reality that disproportionately impacts young men. The next highest trigger is intimate partner violence. Because we are naturally social creatures who live and interact closely with our partners, disagreements are bound to happen. When we lack healthy communication tools, those conflicts can become dangerous. Nationally, adult domestic violence costs victims and taxpayers an estimated $67 billion annually across medical care, policing, legal fees, and incarceration. This crisis hits women the hardest, as 1 in 3 will be assaulted by an intimate male partner in her lifetime. Further, male-to-female partner violence is eight times more likely to end in homicide.
Heal: Trauma-Informed Recovery Creates Safer Communities
When we zoom in from the national picture, we can see how these numbers impact a local community. The County Health Rankings report reveals that Spokane, Washington, experiences 104 injury-related deaths per 100,000 people, which includes homicides, suicides, crashes, and poisonings. This rate stands out because it is nearly 20 points higher than both the Washington state average of 86 and the national average of 87. Breaking this data down by race and ethnicity exposes deep disparities. The injury-related death rate spikes drastically to 170 among Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, and to 158 among Non-Hispanic Black individuals, compared to 107 for Non Hispanic White residents. If left untreated, this public health crisis will only worsen.
In many Black communities, intimate partner violence is fueled by compounding systemic stressors like high unemployment, excessive drinking, drug use, depression, PTSD, and harmful stereotypes targeting Black women. Adding insult to injury, structural racism leaves many families wary of social services or the legal system. Many women avoid calling law enforcement out of fear of how oƯicers might treat their partners, leaving them to handle the danger entirely on their own.
Violence does more than end lives prematurely; it erodes our collective quality of life, hitting youth and low-income neighborhoods the hardest. However, we have the power to change how we handle conflict. The Spokane Roots of Peace project is stepping in to provide tangible tools for the people most vulnerable to these cycles. By investing in alternatives like meditation, physical activity, proper nutrition, better sleep, and open community dialogues, the project aims to help people manage heavy emotions and build lasting peace together.
Lead: Safe Homes and Communities Begin with Each of Us
To lead our community toward a peaceful future, we must redefine what it means to possess power. True leadership does not dominate; it regulates, connects, and heals. This transformation begins with a collective commitment to cultivating high emotional intelligence (EQ) and emotional maturity, practicing these vital skills both within the sanctuary of the home and across our external institutions.
Within the household, relational leadership, whether as a partner, parent, or extended family member, requires the emotional maturity to navigate conflict without weaponizing power. The stakes could not be higher. Recent research (Zhang et al., 2025) demonstrates a profound link between intimate partner violence exposure and severe self-regulation
deficits in children and adolescents. When domestic environments are fractured by violence, a child’s developmental foundation cracks, deeply altering family dynamics and stalling healthy growth (Brockstedt, Baysal, and Daştan, 2025). Furthermore, studies highlight a direct statistical relationship between low emotional intelligence and increased bullying behaviors (Khasawneh et al.,2026). If we do not teach emotional maturity at home, our children learn to externalize their unaddressed trauma as aggression at school and on the streets.
Community members regarded for information and connection, such as leaders of our faith-based institutions, community health agencies, and grassroots organizers, must proactively champion this education. Backed by the Roots of Peace initiative, these organizations have a vital responsibility to adopt formal educational programming centered on EQ, conflict resolution, and self-regulation. By embedding emotional intelligence into the fabric of our community, we build a supportive network that normalizes vulnerability, champions healing, and equips an entire generation to lead with empathy.
Conclusion
The pillars of the Roots of Peace model remind us that violence prevention is an act of profound restoration. Every interrupted conflict, every stabilized crisis, and every moment of healing represent far more than a tragedy avoided. It is a sacred pause in time, a deliberate opportunity to rewrite the foundational story a child learns about love, conflict, leadership, and hope, ensuring peace becomes their ultimate inheritance.
References:
Brockstedt, M., Baysal, S. U., & Daştan, K. (2025). The impact of domestic violence and sexual assault on family dynamics and child development: A comprehensive review. Turkish Archives of Pediatrics, 60(1), 5.
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. (2025). Spokane, Washington. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/health-data/washington/spokane?year=2025
Gillum, T. L., SheƯield, A., Norton, A. D., & Hampton, C. J. (2025). The murder of Black women in the United States: A public health crisis. American Journal of Public Health, 115(5), 663–667.
Khasawneh, Y. J., Khasawneh, M. A., Tashtoush, M. A., & Tashtoush, R. A. (2026). Statistical analysis of the relationship between emotional intelligence and bullying behavior. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 16(1).
National Center for Health Statistics. (2026, February 20). Deaths and mortality. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Schafer, J., Caetano, R., & Clark, C. L. (1998). Rates of intimate partner violence in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 88(11), 1702–1704. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.88.11.1702
World Health Organization. (2024, June 19). Injuries and violence.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/injuries-and-violence
Zhang, Y., Cannata, S., Razza, R., & Liu, Q. (2025). Intimate partner violence exposure and self-regulation in children and adolescents: A systematic review. Journal of Family Violence, 40(2), 401–417.