- “First-ever dedicated federal funding stream for Community Violence Intervention programs, which have been shown to reduce violence by as much as 60%.”
Last year, the Biden White House launched the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to address the “root causes of gun violence,” which is the “leading cause of death for all youth and Black men” and “the second leading cause of death for Black women” in America.
This week, for Community Violence Intervention Week, a new fact-sheet from the White House notes that the Administration’s investments in evidence-based programs like Community Violence Intervention, “yielded a 12.4% reduction in homicides across the United States.”
As the White House explains: “[T]hese programs are effective because they leverage trusted messengers who work directly with individuals most likely to commit gun violence, intervene in conflicts, and connect people to social, health and wellness, and economic services to reduce the likelihood of violence as an answer to conflict.” - White House Hosts First CVI Leadership Academy Graduates. For Politico, Shia Kapos reports that Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the graduation ceremony for the first class of the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy.
The cohort spans 21 cities across the country; and, as Safer Cities reported in September, the academy “equips senior and executive leaders working in community violence intervention with the skills and knowledge needed to alter their communities and the organizations they lead … [It is] overseen by expert practitioners and scholars.”
Charlie Beck, the revered former chief of both the Chicago and Los Angeles police departments, lauded the academy and predicted that “intervention groups are the answer to reducing violence.” Beck continued: “If you want to solve the problem of violence in the community, you have to work with people in the community… If CVI can get young people to lay down guns, I’m 100% behind that—and everybody else should be, too.”
Related: The Department of Justice hosted a webinar worth your time— “Catalyst for Change, Approaches to Community Violence Intervention” on Feb. 12, the DOJ launched The National Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative Resource and Field Support Center (National CVIPI Center) a resource hub for individuals, organizations, and municipalities interested in planning, implementing, or expanding CVI approaches. The webinar was led by experts in the field and offers guidance, history, and insight into the future of CVI efforts.
