Grants Are Part of Larger Effort to Reduce Violence in Communities
Newark, NJ - The Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC), New Direction, Newark Community Street Team (NCST) and The H.U.B.B Arts and Trauma Center are sharing $500,000 in grants from the Coalition to Advance Public Safety (or CAPS) as part of the national effort to support organizations reducing violence in their communities. (See press kit for more on each organization.)
The grants will strengthen the organizations striving for safer, healthier, and more vibrant neighborhoods in Newark. Community violence intervention (CVI) organizations in each city participating in the national CAPS initiative will be eligible for up to $500,000 in grants to support their work, with Newark first to receive their funds.
“These grants represent CAPS’ commitment to those on the frontline, the organizations providing life-saving service to those most at risk of being directly impacted by gun violence,” said Anthony Smith, Executive Director, Cities United. “I am excited to see how these resources will help the grantees build out their capacity to identify, engage and support those most at risk, over the next three years.”
“We are grateful to the Coalition to Advance Public Safety for this important $500,000 grant to be divided among four of Newark’s key violence intervention organizations,” said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka in a statement. “CAPS’ outcomes-driven approach to public safety reflects our city’s formula for leveraging the built-in insight, knowhow and strength of both our residents and a wide-ranging spectrum of violence prevention and trauma recovery organizations. Weaving together a collaborative coalition to treat public safety like public health, we are addressing the root causes of violence – and have reduced homicides to a 60 year low. This grant will help further strengthen the unity of our coalition members, and accelerate and maximize their positive impact.”
CAPS grants can be used for various capacity-building expenses, including training, technology upgrades, policy development, strategic planning, partnership initiatives, program expansion, and infrastructure improvements such as payroll and hiring additional staff members, but are specifically designated based on the deliverables listed in the CAPS Training and Technical Assistance Plan that will contribute to reducing gun violence and promoting community safety.
“The CAPS initiative in Newark will strengthen the city’s community based public safety infrastructure continuing the visionary work of Mayor Baraka and the Newark Community Street Team,” said Aqeela Sherrills, Executive Director, Community Based Public Safety Collective. “We look forward to working collectively to make Newark one of the safest cities in America.”
The grants were announced during a press conference today at the new Newark Community Street Team’s HVIP office in Newark.
“Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIP) are an essential component of the CVI ecosystem, working to break the cycle of retaliatory violence by providing wraparound services to victims of community violence while they’re recovering from their injuries,” said Kyndra Simmons, PhD, MS , Director, Frontline Support and CVI Integration, The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention. “Through CAPS, the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention will provide training and technical assistance to HVIPs and community-based organizations to support them in building partnerships that enhance the CVI ecosystem.”
"The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) is excited to partner with local and national organizations through the CAPS initiative, to support violence reduction in the City of Newark,” said David Muhammad, Executive Director, NICJR. “NICJR conducted a Gun Violence Assessment and Cost of Violence report in Newark, detailing the data related to homicides and nonfatal shootings as well as the high cost to taxpayers every time someone is shot in the city. These reports help local service providers focus their interventions accordingly and show policy makers that investment in community violence intervention not only saves lives, but is also cost effective."
CAPS is especially grateful to the Ballmer Group and Schusterman Family Philanthropies for their transformative investment in community-based initiatives that demonstrably enhance and safeguard lives.
"Community violence intervention is critically important for achieving public safety and building strong communities where everyone can thrive. Cities like Newark are taking the lead and showing how it can be done, including by investing public dollars,” said Nancy Fishman, Senior Director of Criminal Justice Grantmaking at Schusterman Family Philanthropies. “We are pleased to support this effort through the Coalition to Advance Public Safety, as well as by providing local funding to strengthen organizations on the ground that are making a difference."
“Ballmer Group is proud to support the Coalition to Advance Public Safety, a joint effort of four national organizations that are working together to reduce gun violence,” said Nina Revoyr, Executive Director, Ballmer Group. “We understand that community-driven strategies are crucial to keeping neighborhoods safe, and CVI is a highly effective approach that both complements law enforcement and increases trust. It is exciting to see CAPS deepening its efforts in Newark by supporting the work of local CBOs, and fostering collaboration toward the goal of building safer communities.”
In 2022, four leading national CVI technical assistance organizations - The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, and Cities United -- partnered to form the Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS), a coordinated, outcomes-driven effort to reduce immediate violence. The CAPS initiative is a 5-year initiative to reduce gun homicides and non-fatal shootings by 20 percent over five years by building, strengthening, and expanding Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Ecosystems.
CAPS has continued and expanded its work with mayors and communities to systematically deploy key and proven technical assistance and training providers to work in cities with high gun violence rates. We will help implement sustained, effective violence intervention initiatives at scale. The four groups composing CAPS have worked together for years and most recently served as training and technical assistance providers for the recently ended 18-month-long White House Community Violence Intervention Collaborative (CVIC).
These first four cities under Cohort 1, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Indianapolis, and Newark, represent the pioneering efforts in quantifying the core components and refining the interrelationships necessary to bring the CVI Ecosystem to scale in ways that are self-correcting, quantitative, and strategic, and most importantly – adaptable to any city, jurisdiction, or area of our nation.
The CVI Ecosystem represents a set of resources and strategies to address violence that are complementary to existing law enforcement, social services, and other municipal entities. CVI does not seek to disrupt nor replace any resource but to unite the entire community to eliminate near term violence.
To learn more about the CAPS Local Capacity Building Fund or for additional information about CAPS' work, visit cviecosystem.org.