Mayor's Violence Reduction Center CVIPI program

Proposal Abstract

The City of Jacksonville (COJ) requests federal assistance to support the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Center (MVRC) Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI).  Through this initiative, COJ will align violence intervention activities in a community that has a documented high level of homicides and whose members have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality.

Jacksonville is Florida’s murder capital.  While only representing 5% of the state’s population, almost 11% of the state’s murders occur in Jacksonville.  The 14.5 murders per 100,000 people is the highest rate in the state and 32% higher than the next highest jurisdiction.  Group and gang gun violence is concentrated in several hot spots of the city’s Urban Core, the program’s target area.

The MVRC CVIPI is designed to align community violence intervention assets at a central hub, increasing protective factors and reducing shootings in one of the deadliest communities in the country.  The proposed project also expands and enhances the current violent crime intervention strategy, Cure Violence, an international Community Violence Intervention model. 

Federal assistance will unify the three existing Cure Violence Jacksonville sites and other community-wide violence intervention efforts at the MVRC.  This effort will also link individual victims of transgenerational violence with assessments, referrals for wraparound services, education, work training and placement, and follow-up services for one year.   Participants will learn family-sustaining lifestyles and vocational skills.  The project will serve at least 150 individuals with the highest likelihood of transmitting violence.  At least 60% of program participants will be employed in family-sustaining careers or in training or educational programs at the fourth quarter after program exit.

  Led by a multidisciplinary group, community-building and crime reduction strategies unified at the MVRC will strengthen the community’s public health and safety ecosystem.  This proposal leverages over $1.4Million in federal, state, and local resources.

            OJP Priority Areas

COJ is seeking priority consideration for supporting executive order 13985.  Documentation is on page 8 of the Proposal Narrative. 
COJ is seeking priority consideration for documented high level of homicides per capita.  Documentation is on page 1 of the Proposal Narrative.
COJ is seeking priority consideration for demonstrating existing partnership with a multidisciplinary team.  Documentation is on the attached, signed MOU and page 7 of the Proposal Narrative.
COJ is seeking priority consideration for proposing a companion evaluation application under the NIJ solicitation.  Justice and Security Strategies is applying separately.