The City of San Diego was recognized once more for its efforts in partnering with community-based organizations to prevent gun and gang violence in Council Districts 4, 8, and 9. Last week, the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) awarded the City’s Commission on Gang Prevention with $5 million as part of its California Violence Intervention and Prevention Cohort 5 Program (CalVIP). This latest award builds on the City’s previous work in Cohort 4 when it was awarded $3.65 million through the Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention’s Peacemaker Project. 

The Peacemaker Project provides violence prevention and intervention services grounded in trauma-informed care, cultural competence, and restorative justice principles. During the Cohort 4 grant period, the program served over 1,000 youth and young adults, as well as their immediate family members and close associates. Participants were identified through multiple referral pathways, including community-reported, youth-involved violent incidents (such as reports from law enforcement, community members and media), referrals from County Probation, and family-initiated requests for post-incarceration reentry support. The project also sponsors community events that foster unity and address underlying issues contributing to crime. 

“Today, we stand at a crossroads where faith and action converge to build safer and healthier communities. Through this grant, the Peacemaker Project is equipped to continue in transforming lives, breaking cycles of violence, restoring hope and providing every young person a path to promise,” said Executive Director of the Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention, Jesus Sandoval. “I am filled with gratitude for the trust placed in our work, and with unwavering conviction that, together, we can turn neighborhoods from places of fear to peace.”  

The State Legislature established the CalVIP Grant Program in Fiscal Year 2017-18. In 2019, the CalVIP Grant Program was codified as the Break the Cycle of Violence Act (Assembly Bill 1603, Chapter 735, Statutes of 2019). Historically, the grant has been available to California cities and the community-based organizations that serve them. The BSCC has administered four prior rounds of CalVIP funding, providing more than $250 million toward local violence intervention and prevention efforts. 

Grants must be used to support, expand and replicate evidence-based violence reduction initiatives that seek to interrupt cycles of violence. Initiatives funded by CalVIP must be primarily focused on providing violence intervention services to the small segment of the population that is identified as having the highest risk of perpetrating or being victimized by gun violence in the near future.