Portfolio Fall 2000

Fall 2000

Grantees Use Policy Advocacy To Address Root Causes of Violence

strong network of advocates throughout California is working to inform policymakers and opinion leaders about the need to make the prevention of violence against youth a top priority.

Leading the way are 11 organizations from a variety of disciplines—juvenile justice, religion, media, education, health and the legal field—working together toward the common goal of reducing violence against youth through policy advocacy. Since The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) started its 10-year, $60 million Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI) in 1993, it has made a significant number of grants to educate policymakers about the importance of violence prevention policies.

"We’ve made incredible progress with new policies that reduce access to firearms and increase state funding for programs that prevent violence against youth," said Gary Yates, TCWF president and CEO. "These are accomplishments we can be proud of because lives have been saved, but we need to keep up our efforts to educate policymakers and opinion leaders to continue developing public policies that protect our young people."

The good news is that the youth homicide rate has been declining in the past few years, Yates said, but gun violence remains the leading cause of death in California for youth between the ages of 13 and 19. In their ongoing efforts to prevent violence, grantees of the Violence Prevention Initiative use a public health approach, which allows them to address the multiple factors that contribute to violence, such as social and physical environments.

"There is no single cause [of violence], so there can’t be a single solution," said TCWF Program Officer Michael Balaoing. "Policy change is a key factor in creating the programs necessary to treat violence as the preventable public health problem it is."

Within the VPI, 11 policy grantees work together collaboratively to share information, expertise and resources with each other, multiplying the impact of their efforts.

Pacific Center for Violence Prevention

The Pacific Center for Violence Prevention (PCVP), the VPI’s policy center, generates violence prevention-related policy briefs and fact sheets, maintains an extensive library of research about violence prevention and assists VPI grantees in their advocacy efforts.

PCVP’s policy director, Andres Soto, said great strides have been made and points to a number of ordinances that have been enacted in the past two years that limit the sale of "Saturday night specials" and assault weapons, require safety devices on weapons made and sold in the state, establish licensing and monitoring of production procedures of gun manufacturers, and toughen restrictions on gun shows. At the end of the California’s 1999 legislative session, funding for violence prevention programs had risen for the second year in a row, and the state of California is currently providing more funding to after-school programs than any other state in the nation.

"We’ve accomplished a lot in the area of reducing access to firearms by establishing grassroots support," Soto said. "It’s been more difficult to change the thinking from incarceration to violence prevention, but we’re trying to develop a format to make our case heard."

Martin & Glantz LLC

Making the case for investment in violence prevention on a statewide level has been the goal of a public education campaign created by Martin & Glantz with TCWF funding. The campaign has focused on two key messages: reducing the availability of and access to handguns and increasing resources for violence prevention programs, such as after-school activities and mentoring. The campaign has included direct mail, advertisements, polling, media advocacy and statewide videoconferences.

"The Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence Against Kids demonstrated that you can build an active base of support when you research and craft messages that people feel they can own," said Candice Francis, senior associate with Martin & Glantz. "The message that ‘handguns are the number-one killer of youth’ spoke factually about the urgency of the situation and helped create an environment that supported the public, opinion leaders and policymakers taking action to reduce access to handguns."

Francis added that the Resources For Youth campaign, designed to promote investments in violence prevention programs, has built a strong base of support, but more work needs to be done to create a constant demand for prevention resources.