Next Step Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program Awarded $100,000 Grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to Sustain Critical Gun Violence Prevention Work in Minneapolis

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

Minneapolis, Min. — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, announced $100,000 in funding for Next Step Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program in Minneapolis 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.

Next Step Program is a hospital-based violence intervention program, connecting survivors of violent injury to resources and support. Next Step is a partnership between Hennepin Healthcare, North Memorial, Children’s Minneapolis, Abbott Northwestern, and the City of Minneapolis, with additional support from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety – Office of Justice Programs. Next Step works to reduce re-injury and re-hospitalization for survivors of violent injuries, support positive development and holistic healing for survivors and families affected by violence, foster awareness in the community for violence prevention and recovery strategies, and interrupt the cycle of community violence.

“We are proud to announce The Next Step Program has been awarded a 2023 Support Grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund,” 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. “Next Step’s crucial work connecting victims of violent injury to essential resources via bedside support, in-hospital interventions, and continued community assistance, is a beacon of hope in the city of Minneapolis and nationwide. This grant will help support the Next Step Program’s work of directly assisting survivors of gun violence and expand access to their Harriet Initiative, a holistic approach to healing and recovery from trauma with a growing community of peers with similar experiences.” 

“This funding from the Everytown Community Safety Fund will increase the number of gun and community violence survivors we can serve by providing direct client assistance and trauma-informed mental health and anger management programming,” said Kentral Galloway, director of Hennepin Healthcare’s Next Step program. “Many of our participants are low-income individuals already facing some economic challenges before experiencing a violent event.”

“The Next Step Program provides critical support to victims and survivors of gun violence as well as those at higher risk of experiencing gun violence within the community,” said Camila Kuntz, a volunteer with the Minnesota chapter of Moms Demand Action. “This Everytown Community Safety Fund grant will help further expand their services to both adults and youth with community outreach programs and trauma-informed groups. The funding will be critical to closing the resource gap in the state where the number of Minnesotans dying from gunfire in 2021 rose to the highest level in over 20 years.”  

As gun violence continues to devastate communities following an exponential increase in recent years, community-based violence intervention programs (CVI) like Next Step Program 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 Support Grants, 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.