Ubuntu Village Nola To Receive $100,000 Support Grant From Everytown Community Safety Fund
10.4.2024
Investment in Community Violence Intervention Initiatives Will Support Ubuntu Village’s Youth Outreach Programs to Combat Gun Violence in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS— Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, has announced $100,000 in funding for Ubuntu Village NOLA to advance its work of ending gun violence in New Orleans 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.” Ubuntu Village NOLA is a youth development and mentorship violence prevention program, fighting for social, economic, and transformational justice for children and communities. Research reflects exposure to the criminal justice system as an indicator of future exposure or perpetration of violence, and engagement with families of justice impacted youth is an evidence-informed prevention strategy to reduce exposure to gun violence. The organization works primarily with families of youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system, helping families advocate for their rights and those of their children by educating them and helping them navigate the judicial system.
“Ubuntu Village has been intentional about empowering vulnerable communities through a holistic perspective and the work embodies the importance and power of community violence intervention programs,” said New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “The Everytown Community Safety Fund should bring positive outcomes for New Orleans.”
“The Everytown Community Safety Fund is excited to announce Ubuntu Village NOLA as one of our 2024 grantees,” 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. “Their dedicated work to reduce incarceration and its impact through targeted programs and support for justice-impacted youth and their families, including their community violence interruption program has helped reduce gun violence in New Orleans and help communities heal from the cycle of violence.”
“Our young people are dealing with the prolonged impact of violence in their communities and our community-centric efforts are at the core of our strategy to break cycles of violence in New Orleans,” said Ernest Johnson, director and co-founder of Ubuntu Village NOLA. “With the backing of Everytown Community Safety Fund, we will be able to sustain our violence interrupter team’s close partnership with community members in high-risk areas to identify and engage the people and places that drive violence in NOLA as well as help fund our Peace Ambassadors program.”
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.