Shaphat Outreach Awarded $100,000 Grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to Sustain Critical Gun Violence Prevention Work in San Diego

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

SAN DIEGO — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, announced $100,000 in funding for Shaphat Outreach in San Diego 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.

Shaphat Outreach works to intervene in the life of youth and adults who are actively involved in gang activity or violence to help them make self-change through cognitive behavioral therapy and educational classes. Shaphat Outreach’s comprehensive outreach and support services offer opportunities for individuals to consider alternative paths and move away from the violence and negativity of gang culture. Shaphat’s No Shots Fired program, a collaboration with the City of San Diego focuses on gun violence prevention, core intervention, and hospital-based violence intervention and injury reduction. To encourage decreases in gun violence, No Shots Fired designates specific times during the year called “Seasons of Peace,” where lived experience experts will advocate for peace and no shots fired through social media outreach and on the ground conversations.

“The Everytown Community Safety Fund is proud to announce Shaphat Outreach’s innovative No Shots Fired (NSF) program as a 2023 Support grantee. ” 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. “No Shots Fired provides cognitive behavioral therapy and educational classes for at-risk youth and adults, facilitating high-risk behavioral change and offering a unique opportunity to interrupt violence. With this grant, Shaoba Outreach will sustain their efforts to reduce shootings through targeted outreach and mediation support, critical steps to breaking the cycle of violence in San Diego.”

“We need to continue supporting gun violence intervention by investing in community-trusted organizations like Shaphat Outreach— and I appreciate Everytown for investing in them,” said California State Assemblymember David Alvarez. “Shaphat Outreach holds an unwavering commitment to transforming lives and empowering our community. I’m honored to celebrate their ongoing efforts to uplift underserved communities and create a safer, more inclusive environment that thrives free from gun violence.”

“I’ve been working for decades to prevent gun violence and help the young adults at the highest risk of shooting or being shot, and through Shaphat Outreach we provide these individuals with the support they need to make positive changes,” said Cornelius Bowser, CEO and founder of Shaphat Outreach. “Support from the Everytown Community Safety Fund will allow us to deepen these services at an urgent time in San Diego.”

As gun violence continues to devastate communities following an exponential increase in recent years, community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs like the Saphat Outreach  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 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.