Turning Understanding into Action Beyond Gun Violence Awareness Month
Why CVI Programs Need Support and Investment Year-Round
This Gun Violence Awareness Month, GIFFORDS highlighted the many ways gun violence affects individuals, families, and communities, from the disproportionate impact on LGBTQ+ communities and fathers who have lost children to gun violence to key Supreme Court cases and dangerous gun lobby–backed legislation. While this month may be ending, the everyday fight to end gun violence carries on.
Community violence intervention (CVI) programs are one of the clearest examples of a year-round commitment, no matter the season. Every day, CVI professionals put themselves in the spaces where violence is most likely to occur. They build trusted relationships, interrupt cycles of retaliation, respond to crises, and help people access the support they need to build safer futures. The importance of their work cannot be overstated.
For several years now, our Champions for Peace series has highlighted stories of CVI practitioners across the country, showing that community safety is built one relationship at a time. On any given day, a CVI practitioner might meet a survivor in the emergency room, help a young person return to school after months away, drive someone to a job interview, walk a family through housing applications, or spend hours mediating a conflict so it doesn’t turn violent. The work looks different in every community, but the approach is consistent: build trust, stay present, and, most importantly, keep showing up.
CVI efforts have contributed to historic reductions in gun violence in communities that embrace it. Yet despite these results, practitioners continue to face unstable funding for their lifesaving programs. In the last year, federal funding for CVI organizations has been slashed due to shifting public safety priorities. A handful of states have stepped in to pick up the slack, but consistent, long-term funding remains the exception, not the rule. Without sustained financial support, programs that communities have come to rely on for their safety will struggle with limited resources as the need for CVI services continue to grow.
Protecting and expanding CVI programs means safeguarding the progress communities have worked so hard to achieve. At GIFFORDS, our efforts to sustain these reductions include:
- Redoubling our efforts to push lawmakers to invest in CVI programs at the local, state, and federal levels. GIFFORDS experts are in state legislatures around the country, meeting with leaders to highlight the success of CVI and lifting up local programs.
- Hosting our fourth annual Community Violence Intervention Conference in July, the nation’s largest gathering of practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and advocates in the field. By providing a forum to share strategies, renew partnerships, and amplify the collective expertise of the people on the frontlines, we hope to further strengthen the role of CVI programs and practitioners across the country, even while they face unprecedented challenges.
- Releasing Economies of Harm, an upcoming project that explores the realities of recovery after surviving gun violence. The report examines where existing systems fall short and how CVI programs help survivors navigate the many practical, emotional, and financial challenges in the aftermath of gun violence.
If Gun Violence Awareness Month is about highlighting the urgency of this crisis, the months that follow must be about responding to it. That means investing in community violence intervention, supporting survivors, advancing effective policies, and standing alongside the people working tirelessly to reduce violence. Only then can a month dedicated to awareness inspire a year-round commitment to saving lives.
SPOTLIGHT
GUN VIOLENCE STATISTICS
Explore facts, figures, and original analysis compiled by our experts. To end our gun violence crisis, we need to better understand where, how, and why violence occurs.
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