With 58% of violent crimes going unreported, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, communities may not have a full picture of why violence happens or where it occurs.

That’s where local efforts to better understand and address violence can make a difference.

This year, Missouri State University’s public health program teamed up with the nonprofit Stronger Together Springfield (STS) and local hospitals to establish the Cardiff Violence Prevention Model pilot project.

Dr. Robert Niezgoda, assistant professor and Master of Public Health program director, first connected with Krista Pyle, STS executive director, in spring 2025. Since then, they have been working on developing this project.

“We had several meetings to discuss the project and connected with other groups at Missouri State, including the Ozarks Public Health Institute and public health faculty,” Niezgoda said.

Last fall, STS received $30,000 from the American Public Health Association to fund the project’s beginning stages.

Bringing the community together

Pyle founded STS after spending 20 years in education primarily serving students and families in communities with high levels of economic need. After helping families leave abusive situations, she saw how difficult it could be for them to navigate community resources. That led her to work with local leaders to find solutions.

STS works to build a safer, more connected and resilient Springfield through community partnerships. One part of this work is the Cardiff Violence Prevention Model, which uses anonymous emergency room data on violent injuries from CoxHealth to identify patterns and areas that may need additional support.

The nonprofit recently partnered with its first neighborhood and will spend the next few months listening to residents, businesses and community partners about their experiences and priorities. STS will combine this local knowledge with the hospital data to guide efforts that can help prevent violent injuries and strengthen the community.

For Pyle, the project is deeply personal and connected to her years as an educator.

“I truly feel honored to be a part of this work,” Pyle said, adding that she wants to help ensure her former students “felt safe everywhere in our community, not just at school.”

What is the Cardiff Model?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Cardiff Violence Prevention Model “provides a way for communities to gain a clearer picture about where violence is occurring by combining and mapping both hospital and police data on violence.” The model was first developed in Cardiff, Wales, in the late 1990s by professor and surgeon Dr. Jonathan Shepherd, who found that many patients treated for violence-related injuries had not reported the incidents to police.

So, he developed a model for collecting data and collaborating with both law enforcement and the community to predict and prevent violence. The Cardiff Model is more than a way to map and understand violence. It offers a framework for hospitals, law enforcement, public health agencies and community organizations to work together on strategies to prevent it, according to the CDC.

“The Cardiff Model has been shown to be successful with reducing violence. We hope to replicate these results to reduce the incidence of violence in Springfield neighborhoods,” Niezgoda said.

For the Springfield project, local hospitals will gather voluntary, anonymous information about patients who receive care for assault-related injuries. In March, forensic nurses at CoxHealth began collecting and mapping this anonymous data from assault victims treated in Cox’s emergency departments. Mercy Hospital is also planning to join the initiative.

The project will examine patterns, such as where and when violence happens, the age of those involved, the type of violence and how the people involved are connected. This information can help community partners identify areas experiencing higher rates of violence and targeting prevention efforts where they are most needed.

“This will help identify neighborhoods in greatest need of an intervention and inform those efforts,” Niezgoda said.

The Cardiff Model enables communities to make decisions based on data instead of assumptions.

“Using evidence to direct decision making ensures that assumptions and bias aren’t leading the interventions,” Niezgoda said.

Working with confidential data

When STS and local hospitals share data, patient privacy is protected through established protocols and agreements. Individual data points are not shared. Instead, the data committee uses combined or aggregate data to identify trends and create reports for the executive board and community partners.

The printed reports are collected after meetings to ensure information does not leave a meeting. Aggregate data may also be shared with the community during special meetings, but only in ways that protect individual identities.

Analyzing data in the classroom

Once the data committee identifies the most useful information for the project’s board, public health graduate assistants at Missouri State will begin supporting the project.

Before analyzing the data, they will complete confidentiality training and sign non-disclosure agreements. They will work with the data committee to create monthly reports, presentations, annual reports and more detailed analyses.

According to Niezgoda, working with community partners gives students an opportunity to connect what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations. They will also learn the importance of building trust and relationships with communities. Community partners and residents often understand their neighborhoods better than outside researchers.

“Approaching community work with humility is important for students to grasp so that they can clearly understand what’s happening in those neighborhoods,” he added.

Learn more about the public health program