POIC Healing Hurt People Portland Awarded $100,000 Grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to Sustain Critical Gun Violence Prevention Work in Portland

Everytown Will Also Provide Strategic Support Including Peer Convening, Capacity-Building Training, Data & Research Access and Support from Everytown’s Volunteer Networks

PORTLAND, Ore. — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, announced $100,000 in funding for POIC Healing Hurt People Portland to sustain their work and better position them to access federal funding. The grant is part of Everytown Community Safety Fund’s $2.35 million investment in funding to 35 community-based violence intervention organizations. The Everytown Community Safety Fund, a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, is the largest national initiative solely dedicated to fueling the life-saving work of community-based violence intervention organizations in cities nationwide.

POIC Healing Hurt People Portland (HHP PDX) is a hospital-based violence intervention program with Legacy Emanuel Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University Hospital that provides in-hospital support for victims of violence and their families during traumatic events. HHP PDX team members advocate for patients and help bridge the gap with hospital staff to help families navigate the resources needed to recover. Their provided services include, but are not limited to emotional support, family support, housing, medical follow-up, substance abuse

treatment, legal and educational support. HHP Portland employs a trauma-informed approach, which takes into account the adversity clients have experienced over their lives and recognizes that addressing this trauma is critical to breaking the cycle of violence.

“The Everytown Community Safety Fund is pleased to announce Healing Hurt People Portland as one of our 2023 Support grantees,” said Michael-Sean Spence, managing director of Community Safety Initiatives at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and creator of the Everytown Community Safety Fund. “Their hospital-based violence intervention programming provides crucial support and services that can help survivors heal from the cycle of violence and find a path to recovery. With this grant, Healing Hurt People will sustain their invaluable work, with additional staff and enhanced professional development for their team.”

“POIC + RAHS’ comprehensive violence prevention and intervention programs are part of a multi-sector, multi-partner mobilization to reduce violence in Portland, Oregon. Healing Hurt People is an expanding and critical aspect of this work,” said Roy Moore, co-director of the Community Cares Team and Healing Hurt People at POIC + RAHS. “This grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund will allow us to expand the reach of our work in and out of the hospital.”

As gun violence continues to devastate communities following an exponential increase in recent years, community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs like HHP PDX are working tirelessly to sustain their work, working with individuals at the highest risk of shooting or being shot and helping reduce violence through targeted interventions — including street outreach and hospital-based violence intervention — in the country’s most vulnerable communities. These programs are on the frontlines in the cities with the highest gun violence and communities experiencing the disproportionate impact of gun violence. While historic investments have been made at all levels of government, CVI organizations still struggle to access promised funding and when they do, funding is restricted to programmatic expenses, preventing them from increasing staff, building their capacity or scaling to more people and places in need. 

Since 2019, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF) has granted $10.6 million in support of 117 community-based violence intervention organizations implementing promising strategies, like street outreach, hospital-based violence interventions and youth development and counseling, in more than 67 American cities. This latest round of first-time support Gsants, currently CSF’s largest grant offering, will provide grant recipients $100,000, in two disbursements over two years, as well as access to CSF’s quarterly calls, peer convenings, capacity-building trainers, national conferences, as well as support from Everytown, and it’s grassroots networks Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, and national partners. 

Grantee selection follows a rigorous process administered by Everytown Community Safety Fund staff, as well as Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers and an external review panel of experts from across the country, including the Everytown Community Safety Fund Advisory Board, made up of advocates, academics, survivors and city leaders from diverse backgrounds who recognize the critical role community-based violence intervention organizations serve as a component of a comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence.

The full list of community-based violence intervention organizations currently supported by the Everytown Community Safety Fund and more information about the fund can be found here.