The IVYY Project at Grady Awarded $100,000 Grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund to Sustain Critical Gun Violence Prevention Work in Atlanta

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

ATLANTA — Today, the Everytown Community Safety Fund (CSF), part of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, announced $100,000 in funding for the Interrupting Violence with Youth and Young Adults (IVYY) Project at Grady Health System hospital-based violence intervention program in Atlanta 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.

The Interrupting Violence with Youth and Young Adults (IVYY) Project at the Grady Health System is a hospital-based violence intervention program, offering wraparound services that are designed to reduce re-injury, retaliation and trauma symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety related to potentially traumatic events. IVYY works closely with community partners to increase participants’ self-awareness, engage them with their own health care, and connect them to resources, ranging from after school, employment, education, court and legal programs, and more. Their approach is trauma-informed and centers the patient’s life experiences as key to interrupting the cycle of violence.

“We are proud to announce the Interrupting Violence with Youth and Young Adults Project at Grady Memorial Hospital as a 2023 grantee from the Everytown Community Safety Fund,” 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. “The IVYY Project’s trauma-informed approach to hospital-based violence intervention continues the great work of Grady’s pioneering PIVOT program, ensuring survivors of gun violence have access to survivor-centered support and wraparound services. With this grant, the IVYY Project will expand their critical efforts at Atlanta’s sole Level 1 Trauma Center, delivering direct services that are key to breaking the cycle of violence in Atlanta.”

“Throughout its history, Grady Hospital has saved countless lives. Grady Hospital’s IVYY program adds to the proud legacy, saving lives from gun violence,” said U.S. Representative Nikema Williams (GA-05), a member of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “This Community Safety Fund Support Grant from Everytown will help Grady Hospital expand their critical work. I will continue to support Everytown and any other organization fighting to stop gun violence while I work on federal legislation to end the gun violence epidemic in America.”

“The IVYY Project is committed to reducing gun violence through our hospital based intervention that is evidence-based and trauma –informed.  Our intervention is about healing patients and helping them mend their lives!” said Jacquel Clemons, director of The IVYY Project at Grady. “With this grant from the Everytown Community Safety Fund, we will be able to expand our direct support and services for victims of gun violence, and also expand the training and capacity for our violence prevention professionals.”

“Hospital-based violence intervention programs have been proven effective at  reducing cycles of gun violence,” said Marcus McAlister, a member of the Everytown Community Safety Fund advisory board and violence prevention consultant at McAllister Consultancy & Training LLC. “I’m proud the Community Safety Fund will be investing in IVYY at Grady, a program with impeccable leadership and an effective model of change.”

As gun violence continues to devastate communities following an exponential increase in recent years, community-based violence intervention programs (CVI) like IVYY Project at Grady 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.