Connecticut Violence Intervention Program Inc. To Receive $100,000 Support Grant From Everytown Community Safety Fund
10.4.2024
Investment in Community Violence Intervention Initiatives Will Support CTVIP’s Street Outreach and Community Healing Initiatives to Combat Gun Violence in New Haven
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, has announced $100,000 in funding for Connecticut Violence Intervention Program Inc. (CTVIP) to advance its work of ending gun violence in New Haven and better position the organization to access federal funding. This grant is part of Everytown Community Safety Fund’s more than $2 million investment in 20 gun violence intervention organizations nationwide announced today. The Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, is the largest national initiative solely dedicated to fueling the life-saving work of community-based violence intervention organizations in cities nationwide.
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, a public health approach to gun related injury and violence prevention requires immediate “investments in community‑based interventions and educational programs.” CTVIP is a community-based street outreach and violence interruption organization in New Haven, working to eliminate violence among youth in the greater New Haven community. CTVIP targets the highest at-risk youth through conflict mediation, violence prevention,and de-escalating conflicts to prevent retaliation and provides them with support to develop positive and healthy behavioral skills. Their program is based on evidence-based models from across the country that have proven effective at interrupting violence through a trauma-informed lens.
“It is more critical than ever to resource evidence-based community violence intervention programs like CTVIP, which are crucial to safeguarding lives and preventing future tragedies,” said Michael-Sean Spence, Managing Director of Community Safety Initiatives and Fund at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. “The data is clear. Investing in community-based violence intervention programs implementing evidence-based strategies is critical to curbing crime and breaking cycles of violence. We are proud to support CTVIP’s data driven approach, to sustain their progress today and support even more people in need tomorrow.”
“CT VIP is dedicated to ending cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in New Haven neighborhoods through street outreach and intervention and we are grateful for this deepened support,” said Leonard Jahad, executive director of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program. “This grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund will help us strengthen our staff development efforts and enhance our capacity to recruit and maintain our caseload of high risk youth who are active in street violence.”
Since 2019, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF) has granted over $13 million in support of 136 community-based violence intervention organizations implementing promising strategies, like street outreach, hospital-based violence interventions and youth development and counseling, in more than 69 American cities. This latest round of support grants, currently CSF’s largest grant offering, will provide grant recipients $100,000, in two disbursements over two years, as well as access to CSF’s quarterly calls, peer convenings, capacity-building trainers, national conferences, as well as support from Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, and its grassroots networks Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, and national partners.
The full list of community-based violence intervention organizations currently supported by the Everytown Community Safety Fund and more information about the fund can be found here.
Gun homicide has significantly declined in cities across the nation from a post-pandemic spike — due in part to the scaling and city coordination efforts with community based violence intervention organizations working on the frontlines of the gun violence epidemic in cities across the country. And though local communities have seen a reduction in gun violence, data shows that gun homicide rates in the U.S. are still 26 times higher than in other developed countries. In the United States, every day, more than 120 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded.
About the Everytown Community Safety Fund
Everytown Community Safety Fund, a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, is the largest national initiative solely dedicated to fueling the life-saving work of community-based violence intervention organizations in cities nationwide. Since 2019, the Everytown Community Safety Fund has granted over $13 million in support of 136 community-based violence intervention organizations implementing promising strategies, like street outreach, hospital-based violence interventions and youth development and counseling, in more than 69 American cities.
About the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund
Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with nearly 10 million supporters. The Everytown Support Fund seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and help to reduce it by conducting groundbreaking original research, developing evidence-based policies, communicating this knowledge to the American public, and advancing gun safety and gun violence prevention in communities. Learn more at www.everytownsupportfund.org.