The Heising-Simons Foundation is pleased to join several other philanthropic funders to support the newly formed Community Violence Intervention Collaborative (CVIC). CVIC, formed by the Biden-Harris administration, will strengthen and grow community-led interventions in 15 jurisdictions to reduce violence and increase public safety for children, families, and communities in the United States.

Violence is an epidemic that requires a public-health approach, and significant public and private investment and collaboration, to address. Research has found community violence intervention (CVI) programs to be a highly effective in reducing the spread of violence and making communities safer, and the public strongly supports them. CVI programs have been shown to reduce violence by as much as 60%.

The toll of violence in the United States is felt most deeply by communities of color that are impacted by systemic racism and poverty. As a Foundation that believes that those hardest hit by problems such as violence are closest to the solutions, we have faith that this effort, grounded in racial justice and equity, will drive transformative and sustainable change that will make communities safer and stop violence before it starts.