Founded in 2000 by an epidemiologist, Cure Violence Global is rooted in the science that shows that violence behaves like an epidemic, spreading through exposure and social networks. By interrupting transmission, CVG aims to reduce violencein affected communities. The organization has supported partners implementing the approach in 26 U.S. cities and 18 countries in Latin America and Africa. The organization primarily serves young men aged 16 to 24 in low-income neighborhoods with high crime rates, as these individuals are at the highest risk of engaging in violence.[2]

CVG hires staff with similar life experiences to those it serves. It provides these outreach workers with extensive education and training in mediation, persuasion, and behavior change. To maintain trust with the populations they serve, staff do not work with law enforcement, who are often distrusted.

CVG assigns staff to a catchment area in their community. Within that catchment area, CVG staff identify ongoing potentially lethal conflicts, monitor recent arrests and prison releases, maintain a caseload of the highest-risk individuals, and engage with block captains, tenant councils, and neighborhood associations.

When a shooting or other violent incident occurs, staff use their connections and training to work with victims and their friends and families, tempering emotions to prevent retaliation. CVG staff will follow up as long as needed, sometimes for months, to ensure a conflict does not become violent. Over time, CVG’s work shifts community norms on the acceptability of violence.

Cure Violence Global’s work has been independently evaluated at multiple sites worldwide.

An evaluation of its Port of Spain, Trinidad site showed that the violent crime rate in the treatment area where violence interrupters were working was 45.1% lower than in the comparison area one year after the site’s launch.[3]

In a catchment in East New York, gun injury rates decreased by 50% one year after CVG’s launch in the area, while a similar area where CVG was not working experienced just a 5% decline. That evaluation also found that young men living in the CVG catchment decreased support for the use of violence in serious disputes by 33%.[4]

In Chicago, a survey of those who had contact with CVG staff showed that 59% of staff stopped a conflict in the community, and 60% talked someone out of using a gun. 100% of those who had contact with staff agreed that CVG could change minds about shootings, and 99% reported that the program positively impacted their lives. [5]

Given the extraordinarily high cost of gun violence, an evaluation by Johns Hopkins University estimates $7.20 to $19.20 in economic benefits for every $1 invested in CVG programs.[6]

Cure Violence Global receives about a fifth of its funding from philanthropic support and the rest from local government contracts and federal grants. Additional philanthropic support will enable the organization to train more violence interrupters and support local partners in additional cities and countries. Learn more: https://cvg.org/

Youth Guidance works with at-risk youth to change norms around violence and promote health decision-making.

For more on community health workers, which is the model CVG’s approach is based on, see CHIP’s Community-Based Approaches to Health guidance.