Cuts Don’t Protect Communities–Investment Does

Every day, across this country, people step up to the quiet, difficult work of keeping their communities safe. As someone who has stood alongside those doing this work, I’ve held space with mothers grieving children lost to gunfire. I’ve stepped in to de-escalate tensions between teenagers caught in cycles of conflict. I’ve stood beside young people as they made the courageous choice to walk away from violence, even when it felt like the only option they had left.

This is the reality of working in a Community Violence Intervention (CVI) organization. It’s not abstract. It’s not “nice-to-have.” It is life and death. CVI is a public health approach to reducing violence through evidence-based, community-centered strategies. Research suggests that CVI can be more effective and cost-efficient than relying on traditional law enforcement alone. Yet, it is exhausting work done by people who are often undervalued, underpaid, and overexposed to trauma. These programs are in communities that have faced institutional violence by being deprived of investment and overpoliced for generations. CVI staff are showing up with love and accountability; however, these efforts cannot run on passion alone. They deserve the full backing of our public safety budgets and policies.

These Cuts Don’t Just Slash Budgets, They Cut Lifelines

When the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) rescinded more than $800 million in federal funding, funding that had been authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to support life-saving community violence intervention efforts across the country, it sent a painful and harmful signal to our communities.

The message was clear: Your safety is negotiable and your lives are not worth this investment.

To withdraw funding implies that the lives of the most vulnerable and those working to protect them are expendable—they are not. This isn’t just about abstract dollars and line items. This is about frontline staff losing their jobs. Families are losing mentors, interrupters, and credible messengers. Communities are losing their first real shot at long-term safety without being subjected to overpolicing.

When OJP rescinded federal funding from CVI programs in April, it was not a bureaucratic error or reshuffling of policy priorities. It was a deliberate decision, and a harmful one. Over 350 organizations, many of which are grassroots programs trusted by the communities they serve, are now facing cuts. These programs have become pillars of peace and healing in neighborhoods hardest hit by violence. By rescinding this funding, the Department of Justice has effectively disinvested in Black, Brown, and poor communities under the guise of shifting strategy. Instead of responding to calls for health-based, community-rooted solutions to harm, the government has again opted for austerity and neglect.

CVI Programs Are Not a Luxury. They’re Community Infrastructure.

CVI teams are prevention in action, interrupting cycles of violence before they escalate. These programs provide mentorship, job placement, mental health resources, and restorative practices in the neighborhoods that need them most. Communities, not outsiders, drive these programs. They leverage trusted relationships, often led by credible messengers who are formerly incarcerated people or survivors of violence, to create real safety. The model works. From Oakland to New York, CVI programs have helped reduce shootings, rebuild public trust, and provide meaningful pathways away from harm.

According to the Center for American Progress, nationally, CVI programs reduced shootings by as much as 60%, cut retaliatory violence by 50%, and reduced arrests for violent crimes by more than 70%. These programs do more than reduce crime statistics, they reduce trauma, incarceration, and death. If we truly want safer communities, we need to invest in what works. CVI programs are not experimental, they are evidence-based, community driven, and proven to save lives. Yet without federal funding, cycles of harm will go unbroken. Families will lose support systems. Young people will lose opportunities. Lives that could have been saved will be put at even greater risk.

CVI Is the Work of Liberation

At the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), we have always affirmed that safety does not begin with police. It starts with care. It begins with meeting people’s needs, building trust, and disrupting cycles of violence before they escalate. At CPE, we’ve seen firsthand what’s possible when communities lead. Through our Unlocking Democracy initiative, we support a CVI Learning Community; a growing network of local organizations, program leaders, and community champions working to scale solutions that center community, equity, and care.

Our learning community was built for a moment like this—to uplift what’s working, to share strategies across cities, and to organize for long-term change. While federal funding may be disappearing, our commitment to each other is not. And neither is the support from the funders who continue to believe in this work. We are still learning, organizing, and showing up for our communities.

In this Together

If you believe in a future where safety is rooted in equity, this is your moment to act. CVI isn’t just visionary. It’s effective. It saves lives, builds trust, and delivers real safety without relying on punishment or policing.

• Speak up: Call on elected officials at every level
  • Restore full CVI funding to all organizations
  • Establish permanent federal funding for CVI programs
  • Prioritize CVI in all national public safety and criminal justice reform legislation
  • Support data collection and evaluation to improve and scale CVI programs
  • Create national grant programs for local CVI initiatives tailored to community needs
• Show up
  • Partner with local CVI organizations
  • Attend rallies and briefings
  • Use your platforms to build awareness
• Share stories
• • Listen to and amplify the voices of CVI workers and the people they support
  • Highlight local success stories to illustrate the real impact of these programs

Visit www.protectcvi.com for advocacy resources and support.

This is a moment for solidarity. We must not only demand the restoration of CVI funding, but also fight for its expansion. We must build a vision of public safety that funds what works, centers community wisdom, and treats violence not as a fixed reality but as a preventable outcome of systemic neglect.

At CPE, we don’t just stand with CVI programs, survivors, families, and the communities they serve; we amplify their voices, provide the research that proves this work saves lives, and create safe spaces for connection, strategy, and shared learning. We are committed to being part of the infrastructure that helps communities thrive.

Let’s continue building a public safety strategy that centers care over punishment, prevention over fear, and community wisdom over bureaucracy.