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Where Is This Happening?

CVI programs operate in most of the largest U.S. cities — including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, and Orlando. Nine states have established Medicaid reimbursement pathways for CVI services, per the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI). What follows maps the geographic landscape by city size, program type, state infrastructure, and federal funding status.

Major Cities

Baltimore was among the first. Safe Streets launched in 2007. Johns Hopkins tracked the program from 2007 through 2022 and found 22% fewer homicides than predicted in program areas. The Penn North site went 478 consecutive days without a homicide, per the Baltimore Banner. In 2024, Baltimore recorded 201 homicides — a 23.6% decline, per city government data. In 2025, the city recorded 133 homicides, its fewest in nearly 50 years, per the Baltimore Banner and CNN. Safe Streets has expanded into schools and suburban Anne Arundel County.

Chicago hosts the largest CVI ecosystem in the country by investment ($400 million), number of organizations (60-plus), and breadth of services. CRED, READI, the Institute for Non-Violence (a violence prevention training and research organization), and other organizations operate across fifteen neighborhoods that account for roughly half of the city’s gun violence, per the Chicago Tribune. The University of Chicago Crime Lab provides both evaluation (the 2024 READI RCT) and training infrastructure (the Leadership Academy, a six-month program that has trained leaders from 21 cities, per the Chicago Defender). Four hundred participants have earned high school diplomas across nine graduation ceremonies, per the Chicago Tribune. More than 40 companies in 17 industries hire graduates, per the Chicago Tribune.

Detroit’s Force Detroit program, per the City of Detroit and Detroit Free Press, documented a 72% drop in homicides and shootings in targeted neighborhoods. Detroit recorded 165 homicides in 2025 — below 200 for the first time since 1965, per the Detroit News (January 7, 2026). A March 2025 NYC Comptroller’s report found the Crisis Management System produced a 21% shooting reduction. Philadelphia reported in November 2023 a 26% homicide reduction since 2021. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Milwaukee all have operating programs.

Mid-Size Cities

Orlando’s Advance Peace program was evaluated by UC-Berkeley researchers in 2024, who found a 20% reduction in firearm homicides and a 36% reduction in nonfatal shootings in the first year. By year three, program neighborhoods showed an 88% reduction in gun homicides and a 71% reduction in shooting victims, per the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. Orlando recorded just 10 total homicides in 2025, its lowest since 1971. The program expanded from five to eight neighborhoods.

Lansing, Michigan saw a 52% decline in fatal shootings in a March 2025 Michigan State University evaluation, per The Trace. In 2023, Dallas police reported that what had been the city’s number-one violent crime hot spot for decades dropped off the list, per WFAA. Charlotte’s Alternatives to Violence logged more than 1,500 hours canvassing neighborhoods, per the 2023 UNC Charlotte Urban Institute evaluation. Louisville committed significant city funding to CVI under Mayor Greenberg’s Safe Louisville Comprehensive Violence Reduction Plan (announced April 16, 2025), which includes the Pivot to Peace program and Anti-Violence Coalitions in nine neighborhoods, per the city government (https://louisvilleky.gov/government/mayor-craig-greenberg/safe-louisville) and WDRB (Reyna Katko, April 16, 2025, https://www.wdrb.com/news/reducing-crime-is-focus-of-citys-safe-louisville-plan-unveiled-by-mayor-greenberg/article_395abbe6-5480-41d4-b781-e4114b4529a2.html).

Additional cities with operating programs include Pittsburgh, Durham, Madison, Sacramento, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, St. Petersburg, Baton Rouge, and Springfield, Illinois, per individual city government and media sources documented above. Aurora, Colorado runs the SAVE program targeting what Division Chief Mark Hildebrand described as “specific social groups of kids in the highest risk.”

Smaller Communities

Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a city of roughly 40,000, went 543 days without a juvenile homicide using what THV11 described as “custom in-person visits to individuals identified as high-risk.” The streak ended in June 2025. Fairbanks, Alaska has a program. Anne Arundel County, Maryland expanded from the Baltimore Safe Streets model into a suburban context.

School-Based Programs

Baltimore expanded Safe Streets into schools with what the city described as “five intervention strategies” including “restorative practices to combat violent behavior.” In Albuquerque, the West Mesa High School program provides what the Albuquerque Journal described as “on campus peer-to-peer support” in partnership with Foot Locker, which provides retail employment pathways. University campuses with CVI-adjacent programs include UC-Irvine, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, Oregon State, University of Utah, and University of Washington.

Hospital-Based Programs (HVIP)

Documented programs include Atlanta’s Grady Hospital (Dr. Randi Smith, 98% acceptance rate in year one per 11Alive, nearly 1,000 participants by August 2025 per Atlanta News First); the University of Chicago (roughly 20 violence recovery specialists operating around the clock under Executive Director Dr. Chico Tillmon, connected to 60-plus community agencies); Minneapolis’s Next Step; Indianapolis’s Prescription for Hope at Eskenazi Hospital (3% vs. 8.7% reinjury, per a 2018 evaluation); Cincinnati (Dr. Amy Makley); Cleveland University Hospitals (600+ participants, reinjury from 29% to 19%, per Ideastream); Yale/New Haven; VCU Richmond (Dr. Michel Aboutanos); Prisma Health in Columbia, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama (Dr. Ashley Williams Hogue); and others across Buffalo, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and Harris County.

State-Level Infrastructure

Nine states have established Medicaid reimbursement for CVI services: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and Oregon, per HAVI tracking. Connecticut pioneered the pathway in 2021; Michigan became the ninth when Governor Whitmer signed HB 6046 in January 2025. Dr. Kyle Fischer described Medicaid reimbursement as providing “stability” for programs but cautioned it is “not a panacea” — Medicaid covers only Medicaid-eligible individuals and billable encounters, not the full range of CVI activities.

Several states have made significant direct investments. Ohio appropriated $51 million for CVI, per state reporting. Montana allocated $8 million. Indiana established competitive grants of up to $1 million per organization. North Carolina created a statewide Office of Violence Prevention under Governor Roy Cooper, who described the goal as replicating programs “across our state.” Minnesota invested $14 million annually in CVI grants through the Community Crime Intervention and Prevention program (Minn. Stat. § 299A.296), funding 109 programs statewide with $31.8 million for SFY 2024-25.

The bipartisan character is notable: Ohio’s investment came under Republican Governor DeWine. Montana’s came from conservative governance. Texas appropriated $2 million in its first-ever state CVI funding.

The Training and Replication Infrastructure

The University of Chicago Leadership Academy, led by Executive Director Dr. Chico Tillmon, is a six-month intensive program that has trained leaders from 21 cities, per the Chicago Defender. The academy provides what the Defender described as “immersive training in program management, workforce retention, data literacy, evaluation techniques” culminating in a “community-focused capstone project.”

HAVI, a national network of hospital-based violence intervention programs, and the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund have created tools to help cities and funders understand HVIP implementation costs, per HAVI’s website. VCU Richmond’s program, led by Dr. Michel Aboutanos, is expanding to other Virginia hospitals.

The Federal Landscape and 2025 Contraction

At the peak, the federal government proposed $15 billion in CVI funding, later reduced to $5 billion, per Reuters. A White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention was established to coordinate investment. A February 2024 White House estimate credited CVI with contributing to the 12.4% national homicide decline.

In April 2025, the DOJ terminated more than 360 grants valued at $811 million across public safety programs, with an estimated $145 to $169 million specifically targeting CVI, per Reuters and the Council on Criminal Justice. The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention closed. Five nonprofits — Vera Institute, FORCE Detroit, Center for Children and Youth Justice, Chinese for Affirmative Action (Stop AAPI Hate), and Health Resources in Action — filed a class-action lawsuit (Vera Institute v. DOJ, Case No. 1:25-cv-01643, D.D.C.). Judge Amit Mehta dismissed it in July 2025, calling DOJ’s actions “shameful” per Law360, but ruling the court lacked jurisdiction. The case is on appeal in the D.C. Circuit. The FY2026 federal budget proposes eliminating CVI grant funding entirely, per Giffords.

The geographic impact was immediate. FORCE Detroit lost approximately $2 million and laid off three frontline workers, per Bridge Michigan. Fresno’s Advance Peace lost $2 million, per CalMatters. Oakland’s Youth ALIVE! lost $2 million. In Memphis, HEAL 901’s executive director dipped into personal savings to keep 14 staff members on payroll, per Stateline. The Community-Based Public Safety Collective, which was providing technical assistance to 95 federal grantees, lost its cooperative agreement entirely, per the Brennan Center.

The State Response

State CVI funding grew from $70 million across five states in 2017 to more than $520 million across thirteen states and Washington D.C. in 2024, per Giffords Law Center. Florida and South Carolina enacted new violence prevention funding in 2024. Texas appropriated its first-ever state CVI funding.

Michigan’s legislation was signed in January 2025. Colorado voters approved a 6.5% tax on firearms and ammunition to fund victim services and violence prevention, implemented April 2025 and expected to generate approximately $39 million annually, per the Colorado Department of Revenue. North Carolina expanded its Medicaid waiver to include violence prevention services statewide. Colorado, New York, and Pennsylvania have also implemented reimbursement pathways.

State funding does not replace federal funding. Many state appropriations are one-time or time-limited, and Medicaid covers only billable encounters for eligible individuals. But the growth in state infrastructure provides a more durable foundation than federal grants, which can be terminated by a single administrative decision, as the April 2025 contraction demonstrated.

What the Map Does Not Show

Three limitations on reading this landscape.

Chicago’s CRED reaches approximately 15% of identified highest-risk individuals, with a goal of 75%, per the SC2 initiative. The gap between where programs exist and how many people they actually reach exists in every documented city.

Rural and suburban communities are largely absent. The CVI model was designed for urban network-contagion violence patterns. Pine Bluff and Fairbanks are exceptions with limited published data.

A pin on the map in a city with a two-year-old program funded by a single expiring grant represents something fundamentally different from Baltimore, where Johns Hopkins tracked outcomes from 2007 through 2022. The map does not distinguish program maturity.

Federal funding contraction means the map may be shrinking. Programs that existed in 2024 may not exist in 2026 if their federal grants are not replaced.

Bottom Line

CVI programs operate in most major U.S. cities, with additional programs in mid-size cities, smaller communities, schools, universities, and hospitals. Nine states have Medicaid reimbursement for CVI, per HAVI; thirteen states and D.C. appropriated more than $520 million in 2024, per Giffords. The landscape is bipartisan: Republican governors in Ohio and Florida fund CVI alongside progressive cities. But the April 2025 federal contraction terminated more than $800 million in grants, per Reuters, causing immediate layoffs from Detroit to Fresno. The FY2026 budget proposes eliminating CVI grant funding entirely. The map is broad but fragile.

Source Appendix

  1. CVI geographic spread. Programs documented individually across Q06 body text by city with named sources.
  2. Baltimore — 2007 launch, JHU 2007-2022, Penn North 478 days, 2024-2025 stats. Baltimore Banner, CBS Baltimore, CNN November 2025, Baltimore city government. https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/safe-streets-penn-north-JLZH6TGFJFAYHCIIMMTT4J4OD4/
  3. Chicago — $400M, 60+ orgs, 15 neighborhoods, 400 diplomas, 40+ companies. Chicago Tribune, February 2024 and August 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/02/01/foundations-business-interests-raise-66-million-to-fight-crime-in-chicago/ Also: Chicago Defender, September 2023.
  4. Detroit — 72% targeted, 165 homicides in 2025. City of Detroit press releases. https://detroitmi.gov/
  5. NYC — 21% Comptroller report. NYC Comptroller, March 2025. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/the-cure-for-crisis/
  6. Orlando — UC-Berkeley Year 1 and Year 3 results, 10 homicides in 2025. ClickOrlando, August 2024. FRRC, February 2026. https://floridarrc.com/cvi/
  7. Lansing — 52%, MSU March 2025. The Trace, May 2025. https://www.thetrace.org/2025/05/advance-peace-lansing-michigan-shootings/
  8. Dallas — hot spot removed. WFAA, August 2023. https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/one-of-the-top-crime-hot-spots-in-dallas-has-dropped-off-the-list/287-bffcac71-d9f6-4722-9f13-4565880031b6
  9. Charlotte — 1,500+ hours. UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, 2023. https://ui.charlotte.edu/story/alternatives-violence-program-offers-promise-lessons-preventing-gun-violence/
  10. Medicaid — 9 states, HAVI tracking. HAVI. https://www.thehavi.org/for-lawmakers Michigan: Governor Whitmer signed HB 6046, January 2025.
  11. State investments — Ohio $51M, Montana $8M, Indiana grants, NC Governor Cooper (EO 279, March 14, 2023, https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2023/03/14/governor-cooper-signs-executive-order-establishing-state-office-violence-prevention), Minnesota CCIP (Minn. Stat. § 299A.296, https://dps.mn.gov/community-crime-intervention-and-prevention-grant-program). State government reporting. Ohio: RecoveryOhio initiative.
  12. State CVI funding — $70M→$520M. Giffords Law Center, January 2025. https://giffords.org/analysis/2024-community-violence-intervention-legislation-year-in-review/
  13. DOJ terminations — 360+ grants, $811M, geographic impact. Reuters, April 2025. Council on Criminal Justice, 2025. https://counciloncj.org/doj-funding-update-a-deeper-look-at-the-cuts/ CalMatters, April 2025. Stateline, May 2025. Brennan Center, 2025. NPR, November 2025.
  14. Lawsuit — dismissed July 2025, D.C. Circuit appeal. Law360. Giffords, September 2025.
  15. FY2026 elimination proposal. Giffords, September 2025. https://giffords.org/press-release/2025/09/giffords-house-gop-defunds-the-police/
  16. Colorado firearms tax — 6.5%, April 2025, ~$39M/year. Colorado Department of Revenue. Proposition KK (HB 24-1349).
  17. Leadership Academy — Dr. Chico Tillmon, 21 cities. Chicago Defender, September 2023. UChicago Crime Lab. https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/
  18. HAVI — national HVIP network, implementation tools. https://www.thehavi.org/
  19. Pine Bluff — 543 days, streak ended June 2025. THV11, May 2025. KARK, June 2025.
  20. Albuquerque West Mesa — Foot Locker partnership. Albuquerque Journal, March 2024. https://www.abqjournal.com/news/giving-hope-to-high-risk-youths/article_c47eee78-b979-11ee-8a6d-2b9ad65a8bf3.html
  21. Hospital programs — Grady, UChicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, others. See Q04 and Q05 Source Appendices.
  22. Texas — first-ever state CVI funding, $2M. Giffords 2024 year in review.
  23. Philadelphia — 26% since 2021. City of Philadelphia, November 2023. https://www.phila.gov/2023-11-29-kenney-administration-progress-report-our-violence-prevention-efforts/
  24. Dr. Kyle Fischer — “stability” and “not a panacea.” Health Affairs Forefront (Fischer, Morris, Piening). https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/expand-medicaid-s-investment-community-violence-intervention Also: The Guardian, Sonya Singh, June 7, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/07/gun-violence-medicaid-california-intervention-program
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