Violence Prevention Coalition (VPC) of Los Angeles to honor Larry Cohen for lifetime of work preventing violence

Prevention Institute (PI) is thrilled to announce that Larry Cohen will receive the Violence Prevention Coalition’s (VPC) Angel of Peace Award for his work in preventing violence. He will receive the award on September 21st in Los Angeles. The award is a twelve-inch sculpture made from melted down guns to represent the possibility to transform agents of violence into symbols of hope.

Larry will share the spotlight with fellow award honorees, Officer Stinson Brown, Founder of Brother II Brother and Dr. Peter Long, President and CEO of Blue Shield of California Foundation.

“I am honored to receive such a highly-esteemed peace award from one of our country’s most important violence prevention coalitions,” Larry said. “The VPC is dedicated to effective, sustainable efforts to prevent violence while standing up for the health, equity, and safety of one of the nation’s most diverse populations in the largest city of the largest state. The VPC has always recognized that large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector collaboration and coordination, identification and sharing of emerging and best practices, and support of networking to maximize and amplify members’ effectiveness and influence.”

In announcing Larry as an award recipient, VPC cited his legacy of work defining violence as a preventable public health issue. Larry currently is co-chair of UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth through Violence Prevention), a national initiative designed to strengthen and support the 45 largest cities in the United States to more effectively prevent violence. He also developed one of the first courses in the country on preventing violence for UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, authoring several seminal texts, including A Public Health Approach to the Violence Epidemic in the United States, and Poised for Prevention: Advancing Promising Approaches to Primary Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence.

“I had the opportunity to assist founder Billie Weiss in designing a broad-based coalition in the early years of VPC’s formation, and have been a proud follower and enthusiastic supporter ever since,” Larry continued. “The VPC’s innovative policy agenda and effective communications strategies have inspired me and countless others.”

Since its founding in 1991, VPC has helped improve population health, and dramatically reduce violence throughout Los Angeles County while freeing entire communities from living in fear. The VPC has helped define violence as a preventable public health issue and impacted and helped frame the importance of violence prevention for one of the media capitals of the world.

Attendees of this event will have the opportunity to reconnect with the work being done at VPC, forge stronger bonds, and celebrate our collective efforts in creating true and lasting change.