October 2011
Dear Members of Congress:

We are writing to strongly urge you to maintain funding for CDC’s youth violence prevention activities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Violence Prevention funding comprise the primary federal resources that support a public health approach to preventing violence. The CDC-supported public health approach hones in on what causes violence, and how to prevent it from happening in the first place: it engages youth to create new opportunities for participation, leadership and economic opportunity, and dismantles barriers to safe communities. In addition to reducing violence, this approach also builds prosperity. Safer communities benefit from higher employment and greater investment in the local economy. Further, reducing violence is a powerful way to stimulate economic development in communities.

A public health approach is not duplicative of criminal justice efforts. Rather, public health is a needed complement to the criminal justice approach, saving lives, saving money, and building thriving communities. Eliminating funding to CDC for youth violence prevention will essentially eliminate an entire approach to addressing violence, wiping out decades of work to build safe, prosperous neighborhoods and engaged, productive young people. A public health approach:

• Researches and implements effective models: The public health-based CeaseFire Chicago model has demonstrated 41-73% drops in shootings and killings and 100% drops in retaliation murders. A CDC-funded study of the effects of Baltimore’s Safe Streets program has found reductions in overall gun violence, reductions of non-fatal shootings by up to 44%, and reductions of homicides by up to 56%. CDC research also revealed that schools can reduce violence by 15% in as little as 6 months through universal school-based violence prevention efforts.

• Reduces juvenile crime: Minneapolis, a city in the CDC-funded UNITY City Network, documented a 40% drop in juvenile crime in its most violent neighborhoods in just two years after implementing its four point, public-health based approach. The decline in juvenile crime was accompanied by a decline in arrest rates.

• Promotes return on investment: The Nurse Family Partnership in which trained public health nurses make regular home visits to low-income, first-time mothers has demonstrated that children not in the program are as much as twice as likely to have been arrested by age 15; a RAND study demonstrated that the program saves at least $4 for every $1 spent. The Triple P Parenting program has demonstrated a $47 benefit to society for every $ 13 invested in the program.

• Ensures that prevention is part of the solution: A 2006 CDC-funded UNITY assessment of one-third of the largest US cities found that prevention was the most overlooked strategy for cities addressing violence. A five year evaluation in 2010 demonstrated that UNITY shaped the approach that cities are taking to violence by focusing more on prevention – a cost effective solution.

• Provides data to inform action: CDC’s surveillance systems provide invaluable information to help law enforcement, policymakers and practitioners direct resources in the places that will have the greatest impact.

• Engages community in transformational solutions: In Boston, the Public Health Commission employs neighborhood residents to organize, lead and implement community-based solutions to preventing violence. In Oakland’s Sobrante Park, the public health department has emphasized community-strengthening efforts such as neighbor-to-neighbor bartering and youth economic development programs. This combination has shown a more than 40% reduction in violent crime in the neighbourhood. The Communities That Care (CTC) model has demonstrated reductions in rates of violence and its risk factors through a public health approach emphasizing a coalition-based system.

• Identifies what contributes to violence in the first place: Public health research and analyses clarifies the factors that increase the risk of violence and those that are protective against it. This research enables communities to put effective, money and life-saving strategies into place that would otherwise remain unknown.

• Reduces the frequency and severity of other health issues: Public health approaches to youth violence help us understand how violence is a risk factor for the development of chronic diseases, through exposure to early trauma or because violence and fear of violence in the community are barriers to healthy eating and active living. The CDC-funded UNITY initiative has informed efforts to address violence as a contributor to chronic illness, the major contributor to skyrocketing healthcare costs. In Detroit, a community coalition is planning a transportation system for residents – promoting safety, access to safe places to play and healthy food, access to job and training opportunities, and community re-investment.

Preventing violence in all its forms – youth and community/street violence, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, child abuse, suicide, and elder abuse – is something we can achieve together. Public health brings a method and approach to the table that is grounded in the science that has confirmed that violence is preventable. We don’t have to always wait until after-the-fact for more expensive responses and needless suffering. We need to commit to preventing violence in all its forms.

As you negotiate a budget for our country, you will be faced with many competing priorities. None of our visions for a revitalized country—from workforce investment to economic development to education—can be actualized if our young people are not safe. The federal funding level for youth violence prevention activities is a small but vital investment in the safety and future of our young people and our communities. The Department of Justice alone cannot prevent youth violence. We need prevention science at the table and in our communities.

Please stand alongside us and our communities by protecting federal youth violence prevention funding at CDC.

Signed,