Federal officials, community leaders and researchers are gathering in St. Louis this week to discuss a key component of the Justice Department’s plan to combat violence in the U.S: community violence intervention and prevention programs.
Using funds from the 2022 budget and Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed this summer, the department in September awarded $100 million in funding to support CVI programs, with a focus on initiatives that address gun violence. The first batch of 47 grants went to community-based nonprofits and city-led collaboratives.
“This is the largest targeted federal investment in these strategies in history,” Amy Solomon, a department official, said Wednesday.
What is community violence intervention, or CVI?
Community violence intervention is one of the four parts of the Justice Department’s plan to reduce violent crime in the U.S., as laid out in May 2021.
It looks different in every jurisdiction but ultimately focuses on investing in community infrastructure to expand a community’s ability to address local public safety challenges and prevent gun violence, as a “complement to law enforcement,” Solomon said.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said it’s “a strategy and a mindset” that centers the people most affected by violence, including disproportionately affected Black and brown communities.
“For too long, our society has looked to law enforcement alone to solve the problem of violence in our communities. We ask police to resolve deep, complex social challenges, primarily with the blunt instruments of arrest and incarceration,” Gupta said.
She added: “The problem of violence, including gun violence, is not a series of isolated events but so often the culmination of longstanding unmet needs in our communities.”
What does community violence intervention look like in practice?
The federal initiative aims to reach people at the highest risk of engaging in or becoming victims of violence and providing them with services, Solomon said. Many interventions are based in places like hospitals, health facilities, schools and other community spaces.
One Philadelphia neighborhood uses grant funds to train and deploy “violence interrupters” and outreach workers, who build relationships with residents in order to identify and prevent potential shootings.
Other programs are deploying “peacemakers” in Los Angeles, mental health and peer mentoring services in Baltimore and conflict resolution and mediation programs in Miami, Gupta said. The Justice Department also awarded grants to researchers to study the effectiveness of these programs.
Under the initiative, three organizations – the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Metropolitan Family Services and the Latino Coalition for Community Leadership – will assist smaller community organizations, and a central resource hub will offer free training and technical assistance.
What’s next?
The Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative will solicit new grantees for 2023 in the coming weeks, Solomon said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland was expected to speak to initiative participants in St. Louis on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department on Tuesday announced $231 million in 49 awards to states, territories and Washington, D.C., to fund state crisis intervention court proceedings, including extreme risk protection order programs to keep firearms out of the hands of people who pose a risk to themselves or others.
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