The University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention has received a $300,000 grant to continue its development and implementation of multidisciplinary research projects and strategic communications plans for those projects. The funding, awarded by the John Mohme Foundation, will support Ideas Labs and a 3-year marketing plan for the Institute’s Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) self-paced training.

Each Ideas Lab will focus on a specific topic area of the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention’s portfolio, with the Institute leadership ensuring cross-topic collaboration and synergy. In addition to developing innovative, multidisciplinary research ideas and proposals to address firearm injury prevention, the Ideas Labs will also increase the pipeline for the next generation of firearm injury prevention scientists. 

The marketing promotions will focus on growing YES’ brand awareness, increasing enrollments in the self-paced training and boosting content engagement on the YES website. Marketing efforts will allow the team to conduct market research and analysis to determine where to best target content and to which groups. The goal of this new plan is to increase the dissemination, implementation, and effectiveness of the evidence-based program.