What is CVI?

Community violence describes acts that happen outside the home in public spaces. Most often, it involves a relatively small number of people as victims or perpetrators, but it affects entire communities. Recurring incidents of violence lead to trauma and negatively impact the health and wellbeing of the community, even those residents who are not direct victims of violence. Violent activity also creates economic disruptions for businesses and employees in the surrounding area. Mitigation efforts typically focus on identifying and intervening with individuals who are at risk of being involved in violence, as the instigator and/or the victim. They also address the underlying historical and structural challenges that often result in community violence. 

CVI uses evidence-informed, multi-disciplinary, and community-centered strategies to engage with individuals and groups most at risk of participating in or being impacted by violence. The purpose of CVI is to prevent and disrupt cycles of violence and retaliation and establish relationships with individuals and community assets to deliver services that save lives, address trauma, provide opportunity, and improve the physical, social, and economic conditions that drive violence. 

• Trusted, credible messengers to deliver key intervention elements;
• Representatives of the affected communities as full partners who provide input and guidance on the intervention’s approach;
• A focus on those individuals at highest risk of experiencing or perpetrating community violence in the near term;
• Data from multiple sources that is vetted for racial, ethnic, economic, or other biases to inform the approach;
• Practices that are informed by, and respond to, the impact of trauma(s) on individuals and the broader population in historically under-invested communities; 
• Public, private and community stakeholders most impacted by violence building authentic relationships to prevent violence, strengthen community resilience, and build social capital; and
• Racial, ethnic, and socio-economic equity, including understanding the many social, demographic, economic, and institutional factors that perpetuate community violence and bringing supportive responses directly to the neighborhoods and people with the greatest need.

CVI strategies are place-based and person-centered interventions directed at root causes of violence. They provide an alternative to violence reduction approaches that focus on arrest and incarceration. 

CVI is community-centered: CVI approaches must be informed by and tailored to community residents and stakeholders. Everyone involved in the effort must prioritize the needs of the community. This means social service partners are engaged to align and collaborate with residents and law enforcement partners to reduce violence and build community. 
CVI is equitable and inclusive: Care must be taken to guarantee the community members most affected and most disenfranchised are included in creating CVI solutions and benefiting from them. 
CVI is evidence-informed: CVI approaches should be built using evidence generated by multiple disciplines and a variety of methods. Evidence used to support CVI programs may include findings from research and evaluation as well as case studies, expert opinions, or documented lessons learned from the field. Ideally, CVI programs engage in research and evaluation to help build the evidence base for what works.    
CVI is effective and sustainable: CVI approaches must demonstrate measurable impacts on violence and community well-being, and must receive access to resources that support responses to new and ongoing challenges over time.

CVI strategies have shown promising results in cities across the country, providing a vital complement to law enforcement strategies in curbing violence. CVI’s relationship-based approach addresses the root causes of violence and focuses on the people most likely to be involved in violence. This community-driven method relies on credible messengers who themselves often have lived experience of violence and gang involvement. With its framework of strong community-based relationships, CVI work can deliver lifesaving supportive services designed to address trauma, disrupt cycles of violence, and build bridges to opportunity for a community's highest-risk members. By disrupting cycles of violence, CVI can also reduce arrests and incarceration and improve community-police relations.

Just as the social determinants of health refer to the conditions in people’s environments that affect their health outcomes, the determinants of safety are conditions in the environments where people live, work, and play that affect public and personal safety. These conditions include (but are not limited to) the availability or lack of stable housing, livable incomes, adequate nutrition, quality education, healthy social structures, and safe physical environments. Read more about different CVI models that can address these determinants.

When put into action, CVI approaches can look like…
… Trusted, credible messengers with lived experience connecting with specific individuals at the highest risk of being involved in violence and offering support with education, employment, or other basic needs.
… Trusted, credible messengers de-escalating potential conflicts to defuse tensions and promote peaceful resolutions.
… Interventions that meet victims of violence at the hospital after an incident to discourage retaliatory violence and offer connections to immediate and long-term supports in the community.
… Intensive case management and cognitive behavioral therapy interventions individuals at highest risk of violence.
… Other anti-violence interventions that are based on evidence about what works, driven by the impacted community, and responsive to the trauma experienced by victims and perpetrators of violence.

Effective CVI approaches will look different in different communities because models must be tailored to the particular conditions and residents of a given community.

Read about three LISC partners' approaches to street outreach.

LISC, together with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Center for Justice Research and Innovation, created a checklist to guide practitioners and stakeholders through the process of designing and implementing a CVI approach.

Access the checklist here.