Everytown Community Safety Fund Awards Over $2 Million To 34 Community-Based Violence Intervention Organizations To Help Sustain Critical Gun Violence Prevention Work Nationwide

EVERYTOWN COMMUNITY SAFETY FUND AWARDS OVER $2 MILLION TO 34 COMMUNITY-BASED VIOLENCE INTERVENTION ORGANIZATIONS TO HELP SUSTAIN CRITICAL GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION WORK NATIONWIDE

Since 2019, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund has Invested Over $13 Million to 136 Organizations Spanning 69 Cities Across the Country

Community-Led Violence Intervention Programs Have Contributed to 12 Percent Decline in Gun Crimes in 2023

NEW YORK — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund, a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, announced a new investment of $2.185 million in funding to 34 community-based violence intervention (CVI) organizations working in 27 cities across the country. Awards include $1.5 million in support grants to 15 organizations, $125,000 in innovation grants to five organizations, and $560,000 in sustainer grants to 14 existing grantees. The Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF) is the largest national initiative solely dedicated to fueling the life-saving work of community-based violence intervention organizations in cities nationwide. 

Since 2019, Everytown has granted $13.57 million in support of 136 community-based violence intervention programs implementing promising strategies, like street outreach, hospital-based violence interventions and youth development and counseling, in 69 American cities. 

“It will take a focused, long-term commitment to end gun violence in America and it’s no question that safer, more resilient cities are being nurtured through the work of community violence intervention programs,” said U.S. Representative Steven Horsford, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “The ongoing support and collaboration between government, philanthropy, and community organizations are essential to maintaining the gun violence reduction efforts we are all benefiting from. I commend the Everytown Community Safety Fund for their unwavering dedication to this cause, and I will continue to advocate for funding to ensure these life-saving programs can thrive. Together, we can protect our neighborhoods, break the cycle, save lives, and create a brighter future for all.”

“As cities across America continue to address persistent gun violence, sustaining community-based violence initiatives is critical to sustaining our progress,” said Michael-Sean Spence, Managing Director of Community Safety Initiatives at Everytown and creator of the Everytown Community Safety Fund. “Investing in CVI organizations is a proven, research-backed solution to ending gun violence. Despite their effectiveness, these organizations remain significantly under-resourced. With our renewed commitment and collaboration, we will ensure these essential stakeholders have the necessary resources to protect the precious lives of our neighbors today and ensure their continued impact tomorrow.”

This latest round of support grants, currently the Community Safety Fund’s largest grant offering, will provide grant recipients $100,000, in two disbursements over two years, as well as access to the Community Safety Fund’s quarterly calls, peer convenings, capacity-building trainers, national conferences, as well as support from Everytown, Moms Demand Action volunteers and national partners. The Community Safety Fund’s newest investment will allow community-based violence intervention organizations to build their capacity to sustain and scale their programs long-term, enhancing their ability to successfully access additional government, philanthropic and corporate support.

The Everytown Community Safety Fund grants CVI organizations implementing a variety of strategies, including the Cure Violence Street Outreach Programs Model, Group Violence Intervention Programs (GVIP), Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIP), Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Summer Youth Programs (SYEP). Each model is backed in research and is associated with improvements in violence. 

This year, the Everytown Community Safety Fund will award support grants to 15 community-based violence intervention organizations, including investments in seven new cities. The organizations include:

1. Center for Hope, Baltimore, MD
2. CT VIP, New Haven, CT
3. FORCE Detroit, Detroit, MI
4. Getting Out Staying Out (GOSO), New York, NY
5. Tyme to Thrive, Atlanta, GA
6. ManUpPHL, Philadelphia, PA
7. No More Red Dots, Louisville, KY
8. Paterson Healing Collective, Paterson, NJ
9. Project Ujima, Milwaukee, WI
10. Rise Up Rochester, Rochester, NY
11. The BRIC (Bullet Related Injury Clinic), St. Louis, MO
12. Ubuntu Village NOLA, New Orleans, LA
13. Wrap Around Project, San Francisco, CA
14. Youth Advocate Programs, Charlotte, NC
15. Youth Development Inc: ABQ Against Violence, Albuquerque, NM

For the second year, the Everytown Community Safety Fund will also be awarding a new grant for violence intervention organizations implementing an innovative gun violence prevention, intervention or healing strategy, granting $25,000 over one year. The second class of the Everytown Community Safety Fund innovation grants include: 

1. Fresh Start Kidz, Memphis, TN
2. Living Classrooms Foundation, Baltimore, MD
3. RVA League, Richmond, VA
4. Street Pause, Baltimore, MD
5. Trigger Project, Washington, DC

The Everytown Community Safety Fund will also award new Sustainer Grants to 14 prior recipients. Sustained support will allow each organization to scale their work in service of more people in need. The organizations include: 

1. Big Mama’s Safe House, San Antonio, TX
2. The Build Program, Los Angeles, CA
3. Circle of Brotherhood, Miami, FL
4. Faith in Action Alabama, Birmingham, AL
5. Focused Interruption, Madison, WI
6. GRASP, Denver, CO
7. Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, Chicago, IL
8. Nevada Partners, Las Vegas, NV
9. Not Another Child, New York, NY
10. The TraRon Center, Washington, DC
11. Turning the Tide, Charleston, SC
12. Yaay Me Inc., Washington, D.C.
13. YouthAlive!, Oakland, CA
14. YouTurn Omaha, Omaha, NE

The full list of community-based violence intervention organizations currently supported by the Everytown Community Safety Fund and more information can be found here.

As Everytown’s Community Safety Fund invests in its fifth year, totaling over $13 million invested in 136 CVI organizations, gun homicide has significantly declined in cities across the nation from a post-pandemic spike. This decline is 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. Research shows CVI organizations can significantly reduce gun violence in cities with complex violence ecosystems. Immediate “investments in community‑based interventions and educational programs,” is critical to a public health approach to gun related injury and violence prevention, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. More than 120 people in the United States continue to be killed everyday with guns, and more than 200 are shot and wounded. Gun violence disproportionately impacts cities, especially neighborhoods that have been historically underfunded. Gun-related homicides are often concentrated in American cities, with more than 50 percent of gun-related homicides occurring in just 127 cities, and even further concentrated into neighborhoods that have been historically under-resourced, disproportionately impacting black and brown communities.  

Strategies being implemented by community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs have been proven to effectively reduce gun violence by centering survivors of gun violence and interrupting the cycle of violence. CVI organizations work with individuals at the highest risk of shooting or being shot and help reduce violence through targeted intervention — including street outreach and hospital-based violence intervention — and the delivery of wraparound services to survivors, to break the cycle of violence in our country’s most vulnerable communities. CVI organizations have been working for decades on the frontlines in the cities with the highest gun violence and leverage community trust and credibility to identify and engage individuals who are at the highest risk of shooting and being shot, to prevent the next shooting and stop retaliation. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cities with active violence intervention programs have seen significant reductions in gun homicides. Historic freezes on gun violence research and a related lack of available funding for CVIs has impacted the amount of solid research available. However, rigorous affirming studies do exist, with some demonstrating promising positive impacts.

In 2022, Congress passed, and President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included $250 million total in funding for the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative at the Department of Justice for planning, development, and implementation through Fiscal Year 2026. The 2021 American Rescue Plan has also helped secure critical resourcing for community violence interruption across the country. Just last week, President Biden reaffirmed that funding CVI continues to be a priority for the Administration. Last Monday marked the year anniversary of the formation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention (WHOGVP). The formation of the WHOGVP has helped communities access our historic investments in community violence intervention programs, and has built out programs including hosting the first ever “Community Violence Awareness Week,” and hosting the graduation of the UChicago’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy’s inaugural cohort, which included many CSF grantees.  Collectively, these actions allowed cities across the country to scale up data- and community-driven violence prevention strategies by:

• Expanding the presence of community violence intervention programs in the small social networks and geographic locations where gun violence remains the stickiest.
• Establishing local offices of violence prevention, capable of coordinating these efforts.
• Leveraging quality and timely data to inform and evaluate public safety initiatives, and
• Enhancing background checks and gun trafficking prevention efforts.

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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.