Public Safety Beyond Policing: The Overlooked Labor and Workforce of Community Violence Interventions in the United States

• In Event: Public Health Approaches to Violence Prevention in the Americas: Lessons in Implementation and Evaluation

Abstract

Community Violence Intervention (CVI) has gained increasing recognition as a public safety strategy in the U.S., yet misconceptions persist about what this work entails and who does it. Often framed as informal outreach or an alternative to policing, CVI is, in reality, a structured and multifaceted field requiring specialized expertise, adaptability, and sustained investment. This presentation draws on a qualitative case study of the Neighborhood Wellness Network—including six months of participant observation, semi-structured interviews with all full-time staff, and a review of over 200 policy and program documents—alongside insights from my policy advocacy across the U.S. to offer a fuller understanding of CVI labor. Additionally, I challenge assumptions that CVI is primarily volunteer-driven or unsustainable, instead positioning it as a professionalized and evolving workforce with distinct occupational trajectories, structural vulnerabilities, and pressing needs for policy support. By unpacking the complexities of CVI work and the labor sustaining it, this presentation contributes to a deeper academic and policy understanding of how CVI functions as both a violence reduction strategy and a critical, yet under-resourced, component of public safety in the U.S

Author

• Jordan Costa, Giffords Center for Violence Intervention