This afternoon I joined Gabby Giffords, Libby Schaaf, leading national and local leaders in the fight to End Gun Violence, and members of the Warriors — for “Building Peace in Oakland and Beyond”—an important conversation looking at how Oakland cut homicides and shootings in half in 6 years.
How has Oakland made such progress in reducing gun violence?
Answer: by bringing together a coalition of community members, faith leaders, law enforcement, city leaders and those most impacted by violence—and making real investments in violence intervention and prevention programs.
At the state level—thanks to the work of Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, and with the support of Gavin Newsom—we more than *tripled* funding for CalVIP programs—to $30M this year!
Supporting community-based programs—like Youth ALIVE!—who work tirelessly every day, to break the cycles of violence.
Thank you to East Oakland Youth Development Center for hosting today’s conversation, Michael McBride for facilitating, and the Warriors— Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson, for joining us.
Finally—Thank You to all those who shared their stories of loss, transformation and success, in our fight to #endgunviolence!
Originally posted on Twitter. Re-posted with permission.
