Asks of Lawmakers

Include emergency funding for impacted communities and community-based organizations in the next Covid-19 relief package.

Congress should earmark funds in the next round of federal emergency relief spending for the express purpose of supporting evidence-informed, community-based responses to homicide, shootings, and group-related violence, including addressing the unique challenges posed by COVID-19. Congress should create a Community Violence Relief Fund to be administered through an existing grant structure such as the Department of Justice’s Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program. This funding, which prioritizes a community-centered approach to serious violence, should be available to nonprofit organizations in addition to government agencies in order to funnel desperately-needed financial support to violence prevention and intervention service providers on the ground.

Immediately pass legislation to create $5 billion in new grant programs that will ensure consistent funding to such communities like the Break the Cycle of Violence Act.

While short-term, one-time support via the relief package is needed, a robust and sustained investment must follow. The Biden campaign promise of a $900 million, eight-year investment to address community violence should be implemented through the framework of the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, which was introduced in the last session by Senator Cory Booker and Representative Steven Horsford. This legislation would create a new federal grant program to support local governments and community-based organizations in areas disproportionately impacted by gun violence. Grantees could use this funding first to conduct in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of local community violence dynamics through a review of incidents and data-driven research; this data would be used to identify the small subset of individuals in the community at the highest risk of involvement in community violence. Funds would be used to implement, based on problem analysis results, evidence-based interventions such as direct community violence intervention, survivor focused programs, hospital-based intervention programs, as well as health and human services targeting those most at risk or impacted by violence. 

Create an Office on Community Violence to coordinate the federal response.

Congress and the Biden administration should work together to create an Office on Community Violence with a mission to “provide federal leadership in developing the national capacity to reduce community violence.” This office should be modeled after the Office of Violence Against Women and serve three core functions: (1) direct a suite of federal grants to localities disproportionately impacted by community violence, with an emphasis on underserved communities of color, in order to expand evidence-informed violence reduction strategies in partnership with community stakeholders; (2) build the country’s technical assistance capacity when it comes to the implementation of community violence reduction strategies; and (3) set a research agenda for the community violence field and disseminate best practices.