Washington Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative

The Washington State Department of Commerce proposes to implement the Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative for the State of Washington. Specifically, the Office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention (OFSVP) aims to expand violence intervention and prevention programming, as well as support service providers, across the state using customized, community-specific approaches directed to our highest risk and most underserved communities. OFSVP will use the CVIPI grant funds to further the state’s existing efforts and respond to lessons learned, providing statewide coordination while supporting efforts to identify and respond to unique community needs.

Washington’s CVIPI project will have four components: (1) Work with a multidisciplinary CVIPI subcommittee to create and implement a data-driven, statewide violence intervention and prevention strategy laying out a coordinated approach to supporting local-level CVIPI implementation, meeting communities wherever they are in their journey to identify viable community-based prevention and intervention approaches. (2) Support community advisory councils to develop thoughtful, culturally relevant, practical, and inclusive community-supported strategic plans to build violence prevention and intervention capacity and expand programming in underserved and unserved Washington communities most impacted by firearm violence. (3) Support the expansion and creation of violence intervention and prevent programming in those unserved and underserved communities through subawards and the Proposal for FY23 CVIPI Funding—State of Washington. (4) Convene annual statewide summits to leverage collective knowledge and share tools and approaches to enhance and support the provision of services in Washington’s most at risk communities.

Expected outcomes from the CVIPI are increased community-supported, culturally relevant, practical, and data-driven violence prevention and intervention programming in underserved and unserved Washington communities most impacted by firearm violence. This will increase the statewide workforce working to reduce firearm violence and decrease incidents of community violence.