Congratulations—Youth Violence Prevention partially restoredYouth violence prevention advocates won a major victory, as youth violence prevention funding through the CDC was re-funded in the congressional appropriations bill. $15 million of the original $19 million that had been cut was written back into the final draft of the bill—a feat that some thought was impossible.
Thanks for your support.
Here's how you can stay involved:
- Tell Congress: Thanks for partially restoring youth violence prevention funding. This is a major achievement: our collective action helped shift national priorities. We have proven that support for the prevention of youth violence is a priority for communities and the organizations that serve them.
- Make sure we have your email address: Sign up now for updates and urgent calls to action.
- Read our Fact Sheet on Public Health Funding for Youth Violence Prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Violence Prevention funding comprise the federal resources that support and inform a public health approach to preventing violence. The CDC-supported public health approach hones in on what causes violence, and how to prevent it from happening in the first place: it engages youth to create new opportunities for participation, leadership and economic opportunity, and dismantles barriers to peaceful streets and connected neighbors.
- Learn more about how preventing violence affects health outcomes. Read UNITY's fact sheets on the links between violence and chronic diseases, mental illness and poor learning, and on the connections between preventing violence and achieving equitable health outcomes for all.
A public health approach to preventing violence stops violence before it ever occurs. This CDC money currently funds research to develop best practices, community violence prevention efforts and the Urban Network to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY), Prevention Institute's work with large cities across the country to prevent violence. Though the Appropriations recommendations support important priorities, such as job skills, Promise Neighborhoods and community transformation programs, none of these can be fully actualized if our young people are not safe.
Instead of simply ‘treating' violence one arrest at a time, the CDC's public health approach hones in on what causes violence: it engages youth to create new opportunities for participation, leadership and economic opportunity, and dismantles barriers to peaceful streets and connected neighbors. Eliminating this funding takes public health expertise out of the conversation and leaves solutions solely in the hands of criminal justice. Without funding and support, violence prevention interventions will default back to an emphasis on arrest and imprisonment. This is unacceptable. A prevention approach is grounded in the knowledge that violence is preventable, not inevitable. But without this funding in place, advocates will be limited in our ability to bring the peace, connection and community that all of our neighborhoods deserve.
In The News
"Guest Commentary: From graffiti to corn," Paul Lopez, Denver Councilman, Denver Post: 11.18.11; Denver is also one of Prevention Institute's UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth) cities.
"Federal budget must prioritize opportunities, not arrests, for our young people," Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Adjunct Professor at Harvard School of Public Health, The Hill: 10.18.11
"How streetwise intervention cuts crime," Daniel Webster, Special to CNN: 9.30.11
"Youth Violence: Prevention Loses Out to Incarceration As Stryve Grant and CDC Funds Axed; Advocates say Senate Appropriations committee has its priorities wrong," Helen Silvis, The Skanner News: 9.29.11
"Cuts hit efforts to fight gangs; Federal budget slashing to blame," Julia Reynolds, Monterey County Herald: 9.29.11
"Senate bill would hurt youth violence prevention programs," Scott Johnson, Oakland Tribune and Oakland Effect: 9.26.11
Read Prevention Institute's Press Release: Senate Appropriations Bill Eliminates All CDC Youth Violence Prevention Funds; Prevention Institute calls cuts an "unacceptable step backward," 9.23.11
"Senate vote could undercut funding for new Multnomah County youth violence-prevention program," Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian: 9.22.11
