North Carolina Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative

The State of North Carolina (NC) is requesting CVIPI funds to enact a multidisciplinary approach in rural, marginalized communities with high violence data. It will fund TTA to build capacity for successful Community Violence Intervention (CVI) initiatives and expand capabilities through collaborative support of evidence-based best practices. Moreover, it will fund CVIPI programs in these rural communities. 
NC is uniquely situated to receive these funds for two reasons. First, NC’s gun violence numbers are growing at a rate higher than the national average, placing NC in the high need category. Second, NC has several foundational elements that do not exist in other states to ensure the success of this CVIPI grant.
NC’s foundational elements are impressive. NC’s governor recently established a new Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) dedicated to addressing violence intervention and prevention; it is the sixth such state office in the nation and the first in the South. OVP is housed within the NC Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) and is a partnership with the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). NCDPS also houses the Taskforce on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC), which recommended robust changes to the manner in which issues of race, mental health, and community violence intervention can be addressed in the state’s criminal justice system. Also, through the office of Hometown Strong, NC has a systematic method for connecting rural communities with a variety of resources. Additionally, NC has the most Cure Violence Global partnerships of any state, with five programs in the largest cities in North Carolina. NCDPS houses the NC Governor’s Crime Commission (GCC), which has been administering and managing federal and state grants for more than 40 years and began engaging and funding CVI efforts in its two most recent grant cycles. Finally, with the assistance of GCC’s statistical analysis center, known as the NC Criminal Justice Analysis Center, and RTI International, a nationally known, NC-based, nonprofit dedicated to research and data collection and analysis, NCDPS will ensure reliable data to guide these programs.
This grant will provide seed money to fund planning and TTA staff in the OVP, which shall be available to NC communities engaging in CVI efforts, and to fund up to six local CVI programs, which may include community violence program planning grants, CVI program implementation grants, or a combination thereof.