A FALL 2026 REPORT
A Pathway to Sustainable Violence Prevention
Building the policies, investments, and partnerships that make safer communities possible.
Community Violence Intervention (CVI) is helping communities prevent violence, save lives, and build lasting safety. But sustaining this progress requires more than short-term funding and temporary commitments.
It requires policies that protect community-led solutions, investments that give organizations the stability to grow, and partnerships that turn proven approaches into lasting public infrastructure.
A Pathway to Sustainable Violence Prevention is Community Justice's legislative toolkit and 2027 policy agenda, outlining actionable state and local priorities to strengthen, sustain, and expand CVI.
Grounded in evidence and real-world policy models, the toolkit offers policymakers, advocates, and community partners a roadmap for advancing sustainable violence prevention.
ABOUT THE TOOLKIT
THE FUTURE OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION DEPENDS ON THE DECISIONS WE MAKE TODAY.
For years, community-based organizations have worked to prevent violence with limited resources, building trust and relationships in communities most impacted by gun violence.
Recent federal funding cuts have placed that progress at risk, threatening the infrastructure that supports street outreach, hospital-based violence intervention, credible messenger programs, and other community-led strategies.
In April 2025, the federal government terminated more than $811 million in public safety grants, affecting hundreds of programs and organizations nationwide.
Yet states and cities are demonstrating that another path is possible. In 2025, 22 states appropriated more than $497 million for community violence intervention, underscoring the growing role of state and local leadership in sustaining this work.
The challenge is no longer simply proving that CVI works. It is building the political commitment and funding infrastructure to ensure that it lasts.
CVI PROGRAMS PROVE THAT VIOLENCE IS PREVENTABLE.
Community Violence Intervention is a proactive, community-driven approach to preventing and reducing violence by addressing its root causes and connecting people at the highest risk to trusted support systems and resources.
Grounded in a public health framework, CVI recognizes that violence is preventable and that people closest to the challenges often hold the relationships, expertise, and trust needed to create meaningful change.
CVI strategies include street outreach and credible messenger programs, hospital-based violence intervention, conflict mediation, crisis response, youth engagement, reentry support, and connections to housing, employment, and mental health services.
At its core, CVI invests in communities and prevents violence before it happens.
THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR: THE SOLUTIONS ALREADY EXIST.
Across the country, state and local governments are demonstrating what is possible when Community Violence Intervention receives meaningful investment and institutional support.
From California's violence intervention grant program to New York's dedicated Office of Gun Violence Prevention and Baltimore's Safe Streets initiative, communities are seeing the impact of policies that prioritize prevention.
The toolkit highlights three approaches that policymakers can use to turn promising strategies into sustainable systems.
