On any given day, around 23 American children become shooting victims.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for kids and adolescents. An estimated 3 million children are directly exposed every year to gun violence, resulting in death, injury, and lasting trauma.
In addition, historically marginalized communities of Black and Latino citizens have borne the brunt of this violence.
Chicago is no exception. Many people wonder what can be done to stop the devastation here and across the country.
That’s where community violence intervention (CVI) programs come in. Often misunderstood by those outside of the field, CVI programs prevent shootings and interrupt the cycle of violence by working with peacemakers who are from the communities they serve.
Too often, CVI work is overlooked and under-invested in. But with the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Biden-Harris administration made a historic and important investment in CVI. The newly created Office of Gun Violence Prevention, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, has worked to center the importance of CVI work.
Just this past June, the U.S. Surgeon General declared gun violence to be a public health crisis, a long-anticipated statement by both violence prevention experts and medical professionals. Additionally, right here in Chicago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined community members, as well as philanthropic and business leaders, in announcing a major investment towards scaling CVI as a key method in curbing gun violence.
As a city, Chicago has the talent, infrastructure, and drive to effect change in all aspects of CVI. The city’s coalition of community-based gun violence prevention organizations, Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), convened by the Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, has created a hyper-local, trauma-informed approach to community gun violence prevention. They professionalize the job of street outreach workers, streamline funding and grant opportunities, and offer wrap-around, holistic supports like case management, victim services, behavioral health, workforce development, and legal aid.
Anti-violence work requires long-term commitment
Through relationship-building, mediating conflicts and establishing non-aggression agreements, CP4P prevented at least 383 shootings, both fatal and nonfatal, over a five-year period, according to the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science at Northwestern University.
But an effective CVI ecosystem cannot exist without continuous investment and support from community stakeholders. Per the University of Chicago Crime Lab, each dollar invested into CVI provides between $4 to $20 of social good in return, saving taxpayers money and allowing government funding to be spent elsewhere.
While recent efforts by the White House, the state of Illinois, county and city officials, as well as Chicago philanthropists and businesses, are huge and should be applauded, they are just a start.
Policymakers across the country must commit to a long-term, continuous strategy that recognizes CVI as a permanent part of a comprehensive public safety strategy.
From the boots-on-the-ground outreach response and cross-sector partnerships, to advocating for common sense gun reform on the state and national level, collaboration is key. Every person within this framework is critical to disrupting the cycle of gun violence.
It is time for significant investment in CVI infrastructures that are more mature, and accelerated investment into emerging CVI infrastructures. Agencies are already doing the work and have the capacity to save more lives and heal more communities.
GIFFORDS Center for Violence Intervention and Metropolitan Peace Initiatives are dedicated to continuing to save people of color from gun violence.
Vaughn Bryant is vice president and executive director of Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, convener of Communities Partnering 4 Peace, a coalition of local CVI providers in Chicago. Paul Carrillo is the vice president of GIFFORDS Center for Violence Intervention.
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