Dear John,
For the last 4 years, I’ve been proud to build safety in my home city and state, Newark, NJ. At EJUSA I've had the privilege to work closely with countless grassroots leaders — my neighbors — to develop tools and implement strategies that turn their solutions into safety.
Build community-centered public safety across the country.
Hospital-based violence intervention programs, or HVIPs, are one solution gaining traction nationwide. This solution is personal. HVIPs train community members to meet survivors of violence — the vast majority of whom are boys and men of color like me — at the hospital bedside and prevent retaliation.
While we know HVIPs have had a major impact on the reduction of violence in our communities, New Jersey tried to cut funding for the state’s nine HVIPs. EJUSA led the state’s violence intervention and prevention coalition in a campaign to raise awareness on the successes of HVIPs and to pressure our leaders to fund this life saving work… and we won!!!
Gov. Murphy heard our movement and allocated an emergency $10 million to ensure NJ HVIPs remained open. Without our leadership and the support of our partners, these vital programs would have disappeared.
This year, give to provide safety through community-based solutions like HVIPs.
