Youth violence prevention funding is at serious risk, unless we act quickly. The Senate Appropriations Committee has already approved a bill that zeroed out all $19.7 million in funding for the CDC's Youth Violence Prevention activities.   It is critical right now that we work together to ensure that the House Appropriations Bill—likely to be approved very soon—retains this much needed funding.  Without it, federal support for a public health approach to preventing violence will be eliminated, creating a devastating impact on efforts to prevent violence across the country and compromising decades of work. There is still an opportunity to ensure that the House Appropriations Bill retains this much needed funding.

It is critical that all of us working in community prevention, violence prevention and safe and healthy communities reach out to your representatives in the House and to members of House Appropriations—right away—and tell them the health and vitality of our communities depends on preserving CDC’s youth violence prevention funding.