“Community violence” is defined by the World Health Organization as the intentional use of physical force, threatened or actual, to cause injury, harm, or death to an acquaintance or stranger. This includes firearm shootings, homicide, stabbings, physical assault, and unnecessary use of force by authorities. Importantly, there is a very small number of individuals who drive or influence a substantial portion of violent activity in any given city (often less than 1% of a given city’s population accounts for over 50% of violent crime). It is essential to understand that communities that disproportionately experience violence have been fundamentally failed and neglected by systems and often are bearing the load of transgenerational harm individuals at the highest risk are often falling through the cracks of many systems and are hard to reach unless there are explicit, intentional strategies to specifically find them and provide tailored support. A powerful group of directly impactedpractitioners, national CVI organizations, advocates, researchers, and philanthropy have come together to develop a racial equity framework for CVI solicitations that appropriately address the barriers and burdens that have historically made federal funding fractured, burdensome, ineffective, and/or unattainable for CVI organizations in jurisdictions with the highest rates of violence.
