FORCE Detroit To Receive $100,000 Support Grant From Everytown Community Safety Fund

Investment in Community Violence Intervention Initiatives Will Support FORCE Detroit’s Community Awareness Campaigns to Combat Gun Violence in Detroit

DETROIT — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, has announced $100,000 in funding for FORCE Detroit to advance its work of ending gun violence in Detroit 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.” FORCE Detroit serves as Detroit’s convener and coordinator on violence prevention, peacemaking, and emergency response. For almost a decade, FORCE Detroit has advanced community-led strategies that interrupt, prevent, and reduce violence, especially as it relates to gun violence. The organization leverages advocacy, organizing, and narrative building to create safer, freer communities that support impacted families and prevent future incidents through education and outreach. FORCE Detroit’s community violence intervention initiatives approach firearm-related crime as a public health epidemic, curable with data-informed, evidence-based, customizable, stakeholder-driven solutions that minimize legal system involvement. 

“We are proud to announce FORCE Detroit has been awarded a 2024 grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to help bolster their life-saving work,” said Michael-Sean Spence, managing director of Community Safety Initiatives at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and creator of the Everytown Community Safety Fund. “Through their street outreach and violence intervention programming, FORCE Detroit delivers a comprehensive approach to healing, teaching, and learning, providing a valuable resource for families and communities impacted by trauma and loss.”

“At Force Detroit we’re pouring into our community by intervening in community conflicts, organizing community engagement, and advocating for permanent funding for Community Violence Intervention initiatives that have proven to save lives,” said Dujuan Kennedy, FORCE Detroit. 

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 Everytown Community Safety Fund

Since 2019, the Everytown Community Safety Fund, the largest national initiative solely dedicated to fueling the life-saving work of community-based violence intervention programs in cities nationwide, has granted $13 million granted to 136 community-based violence intervention organizations implementing promising strategies, like street outreach, hospital-based violence interventions, youth development and counseling in more than 69 American cities.