Community Violence Intervention
Chicago and communities across the country are grappling with a gun violence epidemic. The overreliance on police and the court system to arrest and prosecute gun violence cases does not address the root causes of violence. Leaders are eager to support solutions that can make a sustainable impact on the root causes of violence. One solution that’s gaining attention from the public sector is community violence intervention (CVI).
CVI uses community-centered initiatives to reduce violence. CVI uses multidisciplinary strategies to engage individuals and groups to prevent and disrupt cycles of violence and retaliation. It establishes relationships between individuals and community assets to deliver services that save lives, address trauma, provide opportunity, and improve the physical, social, and economic conditions that drive violence. WBEZ’s article “Walking with the victims of Chicago’s gun violence” and the recent season of the Motive podcast titled “Chicago gangs: Real people. Real stories. A way forward” share stories of the workers behind Chicago’s CVI programs.
Since 2017, Civic Consulting Alliance has invested in work with clients that catalyze CVI efforts across sectors. This work began with the launch of the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC), a coalition of more than 50 foundations and funders seeking to test innovative, evidence-informed strategies to reduce gun violence and establish an evidence base that paves the way for public funding to sustain the strategies that work.
When PSPC started, CVI initiatives received very limited public funding. Due to promising evidence and recovery funding like the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), community-based solutions received a surge of investments over the past three years. CVI is now a significant feature of the community safety landscape in Chicago.
Public vs. Private Funding (Millions)
CVI has also received increased national attention.
The New Yorker’s “When Law Enforcement Alone Can't Stop the Violence” highlights the challenges that these violence intervention organizations face. The programs have only a few years to prove that they deserve lasting support in order to avoid a funding cliff when current federal funds expire, and to sustain the increased scale of operations that many community-based organizations adopted rapidly to implement millions in spending.
Addressing the magnitude and complexity of reducing violence in Chicago requires cross-sector support. We have collaborated with clients in philanthropy, the business community, and the public sector to scale CVI programming. Below is a summary of that work.
Philanthropic funders to build an evidence base for CVI
Intergovernmental partnership of City, County, and State agencies
The street-level violence response system
Civic Committee’s Public Safety Task Force
Between 2016 and 2022, we provided backbone support to the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful (PSPC) as they built the evidence base and infrastructure for further investment in CVI. In 2023, we successfully transitioned PSPC to an executive director-led structure to sustain and increase the impact of philanthropy in CVI and other evidence-informed approaches to reducing violence in Chicago.
As budgets for CVI increase, so do the challenges for scaling the capacity of CVI service provider grantees. We’re supporting a collaborative effort from government agencies to coordinate funding, evaluation and data collection. Together, we’re working to develop a joint model for capacity building that is funded by the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.
With the increase in CVI Street Outreach service providers at incident scenes, it is critical to define the complementary yet independent roles in street-level response between CPD and CVI staff. We’re helping to develop and scale a professional understanding for how CPD and CVI actions can complement each other through piloting a set of protocols for notification and rules of engagement in three police districts.
The business community has a role to play in supporting the scaling of CVI programs as part of a comprehensive public safety strategy. We shaped the Task Force’s strategic planning process, which now includes a commitment for businesses to hire alumni from CVI programs as a part of their overall strategy to reduce gun violence in Chicago.
After years of building an infrastructure to support CVI, change is beginning to take hold. A Chicago Tribune opinion piece, “Chicago’s community intervention groups offer hope for reducing gun violence” describes why Chicago is better positioned today to address gun violence than it has been historically – due to the expanding network of CVI service providers that complement law enforcement. The Trace’s “As Gun Deaths Slowly Decline, Chicagoans Continue Searching for Stability” notes the shift toward collaborative and holistic violence prevention efforts is working, but more investments in affordable housing, job training, and mental health facilities will help combat the long-term root causes of gun violence.
The nation is taking note of the rapidly expanding network of CVI programs in Chicago. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials recently met with PSPC and other CVI stakeholders to praise and provide technical advice around the topic of CVI.The DOJ has budgeted $100 million for anti-violence programs, modeled in part on Chicago’s promising CVI programs.
“ I’m grateful that Civic Consulting Alliance provided a strong foundation for this collective of funders to invest in initiatives like community violence intervention. Because of the collective support, we are on our way to scaling these interventions to the level needed to sustain a reduction in violence in the City of Chicago.”