Community violence is a daily tragedy in neighborhoods across the country, a pain disproportionately experienced by communities of color. In 2020, there were more than 25,000 homicides, the majority committed with a firearm, and tens of thousands more nonfatal shootings. Yet all too often this form of gun violence, and some of its most successful solutions, fail to make the headlines or factor into the national policy debate about public safety. 

We created Giffords Center for Violence Intervention to champion the community organizations working to save lives on the ground, because they are remarkably effective when given the proper funding and support. Our team researches and promotes community violence intervention strategies, connects community organizations to policymakers and to one another, and helps secure funding for violence intervention initiatives nationwide. 

American gun violence is a complex problem, but we know what the solutions are—we just need to commit to them. Will you help us?

Those closest to the pain of gun violence are also closest to the solutions. We’re committed to lifting up the practitioners and advocates who have been working day-in and day-out for decades to make their communities safer. 

It cannot be emphasized enough that Black and Brown communities experience the harm and trauma of community violence at alarmingly high rates. In order to be effective, efforts to reduce violence must be culturally competent and utilize a diverse, equitable, and inclusive lens. In short, the messengers must be credible, and as local solutions are brought to a national scale, that credibility cannot be undermined.

At Giffords Center for Violence Intervention, we see our role as that of champion and facilitator. We aim to bring existing intervention practitioners together to exchange best practices, build relationships, and secure resources to shore up and expand violence intervention work nationwide. 

As part of these efforts, our diverse team of experts partners with a growing number of state coalitions focused on community violence intervention. By supplementing and strengthening the successful work already being done on the ground, we hope to make the lifesaving solutions intervention programs offer impossible to ignore. 

In order for community violence intervention programs to be as effective as possible, they need consistent funding. By making intervention a central pillar of its Safer America Plan, the Biden administration, in response to advocacy by Giffords and other groups, has prioritized this lifesaving work across dozens of federal grants representing billions of dollars in federal resources. 

This is a historic investment by the federal government: $50 million has been appropriated to its new Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, plus an additional $250 million over five years coming from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. 

State investments in CVI have also increased, from just five states spending $60 million in 2017 to 15 states investing nearly $700 million in 2021. California’s Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program (CalVIP) announced a record $156 million in funding for CalVIP grants in 2022, thanks to the unrelenting efforts of Giffords and its partners.