Project Ujima Awarded $100,000 Support Grant From Everytown Community Safety Fund
10.4.2024
Historic Investment in Community Violence Intervention Initiatives Will Support Project Ujima’s Lifesaving Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Work and Other Initiatives to Combat Gun Violence in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE —Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, has announced $100,000 in funding for Project Ujima to advance its work of ending gun violence in Milwaukee 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, the leading cause of death for children and teens since 2020, requires immediate “investments in community‑based interventions and educational programs.” Project Ujima is a program through Children’s Wisconsin and Medical College of Wisconsin, focused on reducing the number of children hurt by violence. Founded in 1996, Project Ujima supports youth victims of violence and their families, providing them with treatment to holistically recover from various levels of trauma. Through mentorship and support groups, Project Ujima aims to care for the whole individual. Some of their offerings for victims of violence and their families, include housing and food, and mental health support through counseling and support groups. They work closely with the Children’s Hospital Emergency Department to obtain most of their referrals — as patients enter for treatment, their need for further assistance is determined by the medical staff, who then notify Project Ujima.
“We are proud to announce Project Ujima as a 2024 grantee from the Everytown Community Safety Fund,” 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. “Project Ujima’s trauma-informed approach to hospital-based violence intervention at Children’s Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin ensures youth survivors of gun violence have access to the survivor-centered support and wraparound services they desperately need. We hope Project Ujima is able to expand their crime victim advocate team, delivering the direct services that are so critical to breaking the cycle of violence in Milwaukee.”
“Since our inception, Project Ujima has made a tremendous impact on reducing gun violence in Milwaukee through our multilevel strategies at Children’s Wisconsin and Medical College of Wisconsin,” said Brooke Cheaton, manager at Project Ujima. “With this grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund, we will be able to expand our direct support and services for victims of gun violence, by adding to our crime victim advocate team, who provide outreach, resources, ongoing case management and programming and development opportunities for victims and their surviving family members.”
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.As 18,000 people in the United States die from gun homicides annually, and at least two times more are wounded by nonfatal gun assaults, the violence carries an immense human and economic toll, with survivors facing lifelong physical, emotional, and financial challenges, as well as an increased risk for violent reinjury. Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) break this cycle by connecting survivors at their hospital bedsides to violence prevention professionals — staff members with cultural competence, lived experience, and/or expertise in navigating victim and violence prevention services. HVIPs have been seen to be highly effective in preventing re inquiry, with one case study in Baltimore showing participants in HVIPs being six times less likely to be hospitalized for another violent injury two years post–program completion, compared to nonparticipants.
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.