A Public Health Approach for Promoting Community Resiliency
About the project
Idaho Health Communities Challenge puts forward an ongoing public health response to the rise of violence perpetrated by youth and young adults. Currently three Idaho Counties (Bonner, Kootenai and Twin Falls) are piloting the program, launching their own assessments of the drivers to targeted violence in their communities and how to combat it.
Our project goals are:
- Reduce and prevent targeted violence
- Help local communities build resilience to violent narratives among young people
- Enhance community connectedness and reduce social isolation
- Provide follow up support to community violence prevention consortiums, with additional training/materials as needed
- Create a statewide network of consortiums and individuals willing to prevent targeted violence.
About Us
Royce Hutson
Hutson’s research focuses on public health approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). Hutson has conducted multiple surveys in South Lebanon and along the Syrian-Lebanon border, as well as in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the greater Port-au-Prince area in Haiti, and Idaho.
In particular, his work has looked at how social exclusion and experiences with violence are related to violent extremism and initiatives to prevent and counter violent extremism. A variety of governmental, non-governmental, and multilateral organizations have funded this research.
Hutson was a Visiting Professor of Social Work at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon, from 2007 to 2008, and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution at the Lebanese American University in 2016. From 2019-20, Hutson was a National Academy of Sciences Jefferson Science Fellow. From 2020 – 2025, he was a consulting senior advisor to the U.S. State Department at the Bureau of Counterterrorism.
Isaac Castellano
Isaac Castellano is a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Public Service and has been teaching political science at Boise State since 2013. Raised in the Seattle area, he spent his adult life living in various places throughout the United States, including Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon and Idaho.
Castellano believes that there is more that unites us than divides us as Americans, and that tolerance and engagement with our fellow citizens are critical components of a democracy.
His research has examined the relationship between environmental scarcity and conflict, including water security, the role of militias and vigilantes in responding to environmental problems, and the impact environmental issues have on U.S. foreign policy. He additionally serves as the Associate Director of the Institute for Advancing American Values at Boise State University.
Contact us
IHCC offers technical assistance and organizing services to jump start your community’s effort to combat targeted violence.