Coalition to Advance Public Safety
CAPS is a national initiative to reduce gun homicides and non-fatal shootings by 20 percent over the next five years in 12 cities.
The Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS) is working with mayors, community based organizations and communities to scale up, unite and bring greater cohesion and funding to cities community violence intervention (CVI) ecosystems.
The first cohort of cities - Newark, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, and Indianapolis - began their work with CAPS in February 2023.
CAPS is composed of the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (The HAVI), National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR), Community Based Public Safety Collective (the Collective) and Cities United. The four groups which comprise CAPS have worked together for years and most recently served as the training and technical assistance providers for the recently ended 18-month long White House Community Violence Intervention Collaborative (CVIC). The new initiative will build off lessons learned and strategies utilized in support of CVIC.
CAPS brings to each city:
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training and technical assistance
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up to $500,000 available as mini-grants within each jurisdiction.
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cviecosystem.org (a powerful online tool providing data and analysis of CVI Ecosystems for 50 U.S. cities with high homicide rates)
The goal of the CAPS is to support the development of and strengthen each organizations' infrastructure, systems, processes and comprehensive strategy.
Initial funding for CAPS is coming from the Ballmer Group and the The Schusterman Family Foundation.