Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Awarded $100,000 Grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to Sustain Critical Gun Violence Prevention Work in Boston

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

BOSTON — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, announced $100,000 in funding for Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Boston 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.

Louis D. Brown Peace Institute (LDBPI) serves as a center of healing, teaching, and learning for families and communities impacted by murder, trauma, grief, and loss. LDBPI was founded by Chaplain Clementina Chéry following the murder of her 15-year-old son Louis. For more than 25 years, Chéry has used her experience as a survivor to serve families impacted by murder, advocate for survivors of violent crimes and develop best practices for homicide response. LDBPI’s services span from survivor outreach services to equipping the City of Boston with resources and guides.

“Through their street outreach and violence intervention programming, the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute delivers a comprehensive approach to healing, teaching, and learning, providing a valuable resource for families and communities impacted by trauma and loss,” 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.  “With this grant, The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute will be able to provide their trauma-informed care, conflict mediation, and youth leadership development programs to more communities in the Boston area to help break the cycle of violence.” 

“The communities we serve that experience the most gun violence need sustained investment to support their healing and address their trauma,” said Alexandra Chéry-Dorrelus, co-executive director of Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, “As the leading homicide response agency in the nation, we are grateful for this support from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to sustain our mission.”

“Our communities around the country need transformational organizations working with those most affected by the gun violence epidemic,” said Greg Jackson, a member of the Everytown Community Safety Fund advisory board and executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund. “Organizations like the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute are doing life saving work by providing resources and opportunities for survivors of gun violence and interrupting cycles of violence.”

“Witnessing the transformative work of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute has been both inspiring and motivating,” said Angela P. Christiana and Ann Haaser, volunteers with the Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action. “With this substantial grant from Everytown, their life saving work is receiving the investment it deserves and enabling a path toward a safer and more compassionate future for Massachusetts communities.”

As gun violence continues to devastate communities following an exponential increase in recent years, community-based violence intervention programs (CVI) like Louis D. Brown Peace Institute 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.