The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LAC DPH) is a local health department (LHD) that serves over 10 million residents. As the most populous county in the nation, Los Angeles is home to a racially and ethnically diverse population. It is also geographically large, encompassing over 4,000 square miles that range from dense urban areas to rural areas in the deserts and mountains. Due to its large size, the County of Los Angeles is divided into eight geographic regions used by the LHD to assist in the planning and delivery of services. Further, there are over 40 public health programs in the LAC DPH that work to plan, develop, and implement public health services.  The Office of Violence Prevention (OVP), housed within DPH, seeks to strengthen coordination, capacity, and partnerships to address the root causes of violence, and to advance policies and practices that are grounded in race equity, to prevent all forms of violence and to promote healing across all communities in LA County.  The Trauma Prevention Initiative is an early implementation priority of OVP. 

In LA County, there are over 50,000 serious violent crimes reported each year, including over 500 homicides.  Between 2013 and 2018, over 23,000 people were treated in trauma centers for injuries sustained in assaults.  Community violence has increased alongside the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which disproportionately impact communities of color and highlight deep inequities. According to the LA County Sheriff’s Department, homicides increased 37% in 2020 compared to 2019, and tripled in January and February 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. LA County has estimated the cost of violence from medical care and loss of work was over $870 million in 2019. 

Violence is a public health issue and a social determinant of health that has lasting impacts on individuals, families, and communities, long after the violence has stopped. Communities with high rates of violence are often also disproportionately impacted by economic hardship, increased risk of chronic disease, alcohol and drug use, and other negative factors, these inequities are rooted in historical oppression and systemic racism. Violence exposes communities to complex trauma and toxic stress, and the risk of re-victimization. 

The Trauma Prevention Initiative (TPI) is a comprehensive, place-based approach with a goal of reducing community violence and violent crime. TPI invests in community safety solutions that center survivors, employ peer specialists, and engage community members in decision-making about violence prevention and healing. TPI began in 2015 to reduce the disproportionate impact of violence and trauma among Black and Latinx communities of South Los Angeles. Recognizing the need to invest in prevention and reduce the burden on LA County’s trauma hospital system, the Board of Supervisors and the Department of Health Services’ Emergency Medical Services Agency allocated ongoing local Measure B funding to DPH to implement TPI.  TPI invests in three key objectives to prevent violence: 1) intervention, using a peer approach in hospital and community settings to reduce and break the cycle of violence and violent crime; 2) investment in community engagement and community identified strategies to increase collaboration and multi-sector coordination; and 3) capacity growth for small grassroots violence prevention organizations by providing technical assistance and multidisciplinary training opportunities. Specific activities include: 

-Hospital Violence Intervention (HVI) employs credible messengers to establish rapport and trust with victims of violence in the trauma hospital setting, conducts an assessment regarding status and needs, provides links to community resources and ongoing case management services.  

-Street Outreach and Community Violence Intervention (SOCVI) agencies employ credible messengers to respond to violent incidents, conduct rumor control and maintain peace across neighborhoods, conduct safe passages to and from schools and parks, and link gang-impacted and affiliated community members to resources and services. OVP has contracted for SOCVI services in 4 South LA communities since July 2018.  

-Community Action for Peace (CAP) networks support local leadership for shared decision making and promote positive community identity and collaboration. Westmont West Athens CAP has convened since 2017 and Willowbrook CAP since 2018. TPI CAPs held 5 community summits and facilitated mini grants to promote peace and well-being. To increase inclusivity and health equity for our diverse communities, bilingual translation is provided for meetings, events, and materials through staff and contracted services. TPI has also implemented community-identified healing-informed strategies via county partnerships including healing arts programs with the Department of Arts and Culture, mental health training and Park Therapy with the Department of Mental Health, a job center and aligned employment with Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services (WDACS), and aligned hate violence prevention with the Commission on Human Relations. 

-Capacity Building Training and Technical Assistance supports grassroots violence prevention and intervention agencies, with a focus on organizational development, funding/resources, marketing, and evaluation.   

Public Health Impacts and Benefits (2020 Data): Between 2016 and 2020, violent crimes in two communities declined, while violent crimes in unincorporated Compton increased and in Florence Firestone rates remained steady, showing promising early results. Westmont West Athens and Willowbrook, which have ongoing community engagement infrastructure, saw the greatest declines.  

The most effective approaches to preventing violence include: (1) A collaborative approach that works across sectors to address risk and protective factors; (2) A comprehensive approach that includes strategies that address primary prevention (general population), secondary prevention (at-risk populations), and tertiary prevention (Impacted populations), across a socio-ecological model (individual, family, community, policy and systems); and (3) Engaging those most impacted, as survivors or as perpetrators, in developing and implementing the solutions to violence in their communities. 

TPI is built on this collaborative and comprehensive approach that centers those most impacted in the design and delivery of services, which is fundamental to TPI progress and achievement.  TPI community engagement is based on the principles of equitable engagement including collective decision making, shared power and mutual respect.   

TPI further advances equity by investing in grassroots community organizations, providing career pathways for individuals who have been previously incarcerated, and building trusting relationships between community, government, and law enforcement.   

Website: Los Angeles County Trauma Prevention Initiative (lacounty.gov) 

Responsiveness and Innovation 

TPI has been implemented in four unincorporated communities in South Los Angeles: Westmont West Athens, Willowbrook, Florence Firestone, and Compton. In the four South LA communities, the total population is 152,542. With regards to race/ethnicity, the communities are primarily Latinx and Black, with higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and lack of insurance than the LA County average. Several indicators were used to identify priority communities for TPI implementation, including (1) status as an unincorporated community, (2) high violence: assault rates, homicide rates, violent crime rate, gang-related crime rate, assault-related trauma visits, and (3) established community infrastructure: adjacent to a City of Los Angeles Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) zone, Parks After Dark (PAD) parks in the community, DPH existing relationships with the community, and a Trauma Center within 5 miles.   

Violence takes a variety of forms and impacts individuals, families, and communities in complex ways. Community violence, including gang violence, is interconnected with other forms of violence such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, child abuse, human and sex trafficking, elder abuse, bullying, hate crimes and suicidal ideation. Disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx communities, violence is deeply rooted in historical oppression and systemic racism, which have deeply traumatized and created a cycle of disinvestment in these communities and prevented their ability to thrive. Communities with high rates of violence also often have high rates of economic hardship and chronic disease. Violence contributes to social isolation and the breakdown of social networks, inflicts both physiological and psychological stress, reduces the freedom that a community has to safely play, work, worship, and connect, and perpetuates a lack of civic engagement and continued disinvestment in communities. 

TPI has successfully implemented a comprehensive place-based plan to reduce violence in communities of the county with the highest rates of violence. This data-driven approach informed TPI implementation in four unincorporated communities in South Los Angeles where the work has been centered thus far. While these communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by violence, TPI has helped to reduce violence between initiative start in 2015 to 2020 and built infrastructure to continue this work and expand to additional communities in the County.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the hardship that characterizes communities that bear the brunt of disproportionate violence. People who live in areas with high rates of poverty have three times the rate of deaths for COVID-19. At the same time, COVID-19 has impeded preventive interventions that rely on street outreach and in-person support. As the virus spreads, violence has not stopped and TPI strategies, resources and partnerships have become even more critical. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, TPI staff were able to work with community partners and interventionists in creative and  proactive ways to help secure critical support for communities that were hardest hit by both violence and the pandemic.  

TPI’s approach to meaningful community engagement allows for opportunities to partner in new and innovative ways.  Because of the relationships built with community and county partners, we are able to advance and improve police-community relations and create safe spaces for prevention efforts to take root, addressing the epidemic of violence as a public health issue.  TPI staff have also established protocols to support the expansion of this work, including a safe passages protocol with the Department of Parks and Recreation, an incident response protocol with the Sheriff’s Department, and has fostered strong partnerships with a variety of county departments and initiatives via the TPI Advisory Committee to align services and prioritize TPI communities for resources.  

TPI work is informed by existing frameworks and tools including the CDC’s Strategic Vision on Connecting the Dots to Prevent Multiple Forms of Violence, California Department of Public Health’s Violence Prevention Initiative, and The Alliance of Safety and Justice’s Blueprint for Shared Safety.

Local Health Department and Community Collaboration 

Community engagement and empowerment is at the heart of TPI and ensures a violence prevention approach that is community-driven, culturally relevant, and effective. Despite the many historical and cultural assets and attributes, TPI communities have been plagued with disproportionately high crime rates, violence, and poor health outcomes. During interviews conducted for the landscape analysis, residents reported several challenges including: 1) a lack of coordinated services and economic infrastructure to support families, 2) a need for parent resources including peer support groups and parenting classes available outside of working hours, and 3) a need for more child development opportunities.  

Prior to implementing TPI, LAC DPH program staff from the Injury and Violence Prevention Program (now Office of Violence Prevention), Policies for Livable, Active Communities and Environments (PLACE), and Community and Field Services Division staff specialists based in South Los Angeles, engaged formal and informal community leaders to seek their participation and engagement in building the design and framework for a community-based and culturally relevant violence prevention and intervention approach. Community leaders included residents, faith-based and community-based trusted representatives, violence interventionists and other credible messengers referred by community partners.  Out of these initial meetings, TPI established Community Action for Peace stakeholder groups, beginning with Westmont West Athens and Willowbrook, to support leadership in disenfranchised communities, promote positive community identity, provide opportunities for shared decision making to inform TPI implementation, and create collaborative support networks in disenfranchised communities to leverage community strengths and inform systems change.  

TPI staff also work with county departments and initiatives to align resources to communities and identify opportunities to advance systems change. The TPI Advisory Committee brings together multiple county partners along with TPI community providers to guide the initiative during quarterly meetings and discuss opportunities to collaborate. TPI partnered with the MLK Community Health and Trauma Prevention Center to work closely with community residents to provide healing services and safe spaces for dialogue and peer support, and to increase access to trauma prevention and intervention services provided through 2458 visits. TPI partnered with the Department of Mental Health to continue Park Therapy, which uses innovative, non-traditional approaches to engage residents in positive mental health discourse, and create a safe, nonjudgmental environment for residents to be connected to mental health services. TPI funds county and community agencies to implement community identified strategies, and applies lessons learned from our community networks and funded strategies to develop innovative programs and partnerships. TPI strategies are survivor-centered and invest in peer approaches which advance equitable policies and systems change.  These parallel and complementary tracks of community empowerment and systems change are critical for violence prevention efforts to be sustainable and achieve long lasting and meaningful change. 

TPI coordinates with partners to meet the unique needs of each community served by:  (1) compiling violence data to determine high need areas and to understand the circumstances of violence; (2) convening listening sessions with community members to identify priorities; (3) conducting a rapid assessment of community assets, resources, gaps and needs; (4) engaging community partners and stakeholders to identify and link existing community efforts; and (5) coordinating with County departments to align services and initiatives.  

TPI receives ongoing funding in the amount of $1.985 million annually through Measure B, a Los Angeles County parcel tax supporting county trauma services and facilities. 

TPI has three main objectives: 1) reduce violent crime and assault-related trauma center visit rates in communities disproportionately impacted by violence through intervention strategies, 2) increase the capacity of grassroots organizations to prevent violence through training and technical assistance, and 3) build community engagement and cross sector collaboration by investing in prevention infrastructure and community identified strategies. 

Significant achievements have been demonstrated in the early years of implementation in each of these 3 areas.  The first 5 years of TPI implementation demonstrates promising results for decreases in violent crime and for building sustainable infrastructure for violence prevention and intervention in LA County unincorporated communities.  

TPI evaluation efforts include process and outcome assessment and indicators to measure the impact of each objective including the reduction in assault related trauma center visits and violent crimes, community engagement, community capacity building, cross sector collaboration, and perceptions of safety. Public Health staff collect and analyze process and outcome data for the initiative and conduct analysis of community-level rates and trends over time. TPI also works with intervention funded agencies to develop data collection protocols, conduct the evaluation of HVI and Street Outreach strategies, and conduct door-to-door community safety surveys. Overall, 2015 is regarded as the baseline year for the TPI evaluation, however, each strategy began implementation in different years and trends are examined accordingly.  

Community outcome indicators, including trauma hospital visits and violent crime rates, are used to estimate impact of TPI strategies, using the year prior to implementation of each strategy as baseline. While TPI overall began in 2015, HVI implementation started in July 2017, and Street Outreach in June/July 2018. For trauma hospital visits, staff receive annual data from the LA County Emergency Medical Services Agency that includes assaultrelated trauma hospital visits. Trauma visits include severe injuries that are transported to hospitals with a trauma center designation, where individuals receive specialized care for violence related injuries, including shootings, stabbings, and blunt force.  

TPI staff also receive monthly crime data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). This includes Part I serious and violent crimes: aggravated assault, arson, burglary, criminal homicide, forcible rape, grand theft auto, larceny theft and robbery. LASD also includes a variable to identify crimes as “gang-related” however it is not clear how consistently it is defined and reported. In 2015, Urban Peace Institute (UPI) conducted a Community Safety Survey in three TPI communities, collecting a total of 312 surveys primarily in the Watts-Willowbrook community (74%) and including a limited sample in Westmont West Athens and Florence Firestone. In 2018, a follow up survey was conducted in all four TPI communities, and a total of 1,785 surveys were collected with the addition of unincorporated Compton. UPI used a unique approach to conduct the survey, hiring community intervention workers who are regarded as credible messengers, to go door-to-door and gather perceptions about civic engagement, access to services, main community issues and priorities, and the roles of groups and agencies in improving community safety. Results of the survey were used to gauge the impact of TPI strategies on perception of safety and gather insights and recommendations to guide the work of TPI and county and community partners.  

TPI staff work closely with community stakeholders to provide backbone support for ongoing community engagement, determining how to best support existing leadership networks and coalitions in each community. After extensive relationship building and research, TPI staff supported stakeholders to establish Community Action for Peace (CAP) groups in Westmont West Athens and Willowbrook. CAPs meet at least once each month to develop community-driven strategies for violence prevention within their community. CAPs provide a space for community members to meet, discuss and identify community issues relating to violence and to work together to create programs, events, and trainings that respond to immediate concerns. TPI staff are actively working to develop and strengthen relationships with community leaders and stakeholders in Florence/Firestone and unincorporated Compton to establish CAP groups in these communities as well. TPI contracts with community-based organizations to provide facilitation and strategic planning and leadership capacity building support for CAPs. Early work with CAPs mobilized stakeholders around convening community summits to foster collaboration and positive identify and later work transitioned to more focused capacity and leadership building. 

Last, TPI has hosted quarterly Advisory Committee meetings since 2016 for a multi-sector group of county departments and initiative representatives, and TPI funded partners, to guide the initiative and identify opportunities for systems change. The Committee includes nearly 200 members from 70 different organizations. TPI staff update committee members on the progress of each strategy, facilitate discussions of successes and challenges of the work, and provide space for community organizations to present their work and to connect with county providers. 

Summary of Impacts 

-Since 2017 TPI has contracted with Southern California Crossroads to implement Hospital Based Violence Intervention (HVI). TPI has contracted with agencies to provide Street Outreach and Community Violence Intervention Services in 4 communities since 2018.  

-TPI has established protocols for gang intervention services in unincorporated communities, with clear roles, responsibilities, and guidelines for Street Outreach team members to work with Parks and Recreation for safe passages, and with the Sheriff’s Department for incident response. 

-Between 2015-2018, year two of HVI implementation, TPI communities saw a 37% reduction in assault-related trauma hospital visit rates, compared to a 21% reduction in LA County overall. 

-During 2020, Crossroads provided HVI case management to 175 clients out of 460 referrals at St. Francis and Harbor UCLA Medical Centers. 

-During 2020, Street Outreach agencies conducted more than 4000 activities including safe passages at parks and schools (33%), community meetings and relationship building (16%), client engagement (10%), and conflict resolution (6%).  Agencies responded to a total of 119 incidents including 29 homicides.  

-In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Street Outreach workers were lifelines for some of the county’s hardest hit communities, addressing food insecurity, COVID safety and education, while still addressing existing community violence.  

-Through December 2020, TPI provided technical assistance to over 100 community-based organizations.  

Based on early data and data analysis, TPI has saved the County an estimated $1,977,395 per year in criminal justice costs between the baseline year of 2016 and 2019, based on analysis of decreased aggravated assaults in TPI communities compared to Sheriff’s Department communities overall. Compared to LASD overall, there was no significant decrease in other types of violent crime in TPI communities during this time period. TPI is continuing to assess the impact of COVID-19 on community violence. While overall violent crimes in TPI communities declined between 2016 and 2020, there were no significant decreases in aggravated assaults or homicides in TPI communities relative to Sheriff’s Department communities overall.   

2016 – 2019 aggravated assaults: 

TPI communities: decreased from 947 to 846 (10.7% decrease) 

Sheriff’s Department overall: decreased from 6983 to 6745 (3.4% decrease) 

If TPI communities had experienced just a 3.4% decrease they would have expected 914 assaults in 2019. 

Difference between actual (846) and expected assaults (914) = 68 

RAND study average cost per serious assault = $87,238 

Estimated savings for reduction in violence in TPI communities compared to reduction in LASD overall:  

$87,238 * 68 = $5,932,184 / 3 years = $1,977,395 per year 

TPI achievements are the result of partnerships with community members, non-profit and faith-based organizations, and with county departments. The comprehensive, community-driven model built by TPI has served as an incubator for new ideas and for advancing systems change. This preliminary work has also revealed many challenges and lessons learned to inform future work and proposed TPI expansion. TPI’s approach and strategies provide an initial foundation for building a comprehensive, countywide, community-driven violence prevention approach tailored to the unique needs of communities. 

Sustainability and Lessons Learned 

The creation of TPI has resulted in a myriad of unexpected benefits thanks to the partnerships made with community members and organizations, and with county departments. The comprehensive, community-driven model built by TPI allowed it to serve as an incubator for new ideas and for systems change, many of which were directly inspired by the CAP groups in Westmont West Athens and Willowbrook. This work has also revealed many new challenges and lessons learned to inform future work and TPI expansion.  

These challenges and lessons learned are outlined below. 

Building a foundation for countywide work: TPI investment in community-driven safety strategies, meaningful community engagement, and cross-sector systems change has provided a strong foundation for the countywide place-based work of the Office of Violence Prevention, and provide opportunities to scale up and refine multiple strategies via the OVP Early Implementation Strategic Plan.  

A model for meaningful community engagement: TPI has learned a lot from the CAPs including a need to invest in engagement long-term, step back to facilitate community leadership and decision making, and facilitate collaboration both within communities and between community and county agencies. Additionally, it is important to work with county partners to leverage existing leadership networks for outreach, and properly resource community engagement (i.e., food, stipends, translation). Community voice is critical to advance meaningful systems change and to promote equity. Unincorporated communities need formally recognized leadership infrastructure and funding for community identified strategies, similar to Neighborhood Councils.  

Aligning systems in high need communities: TPI has built strong partnerships with many county departments and initiatives, to help leverage resources through collaboration. As a result, county partners increasingly prioritize TPI communities for new programs and initiatives and look to TPI and CAPs as expected partners for community outreach and engagement.  Formal agreements are needed to institutionalize existing partnerships and pilot strategies implemented with county departments and to explore new opportunities. 

Building infrastructure for violence intervention: TPI has provided ongoing investment in Street Outreach and HVI for the first time in county unincorporated communities and has made significant strides in establishing protocols with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the LA County Sheriff’s Department. Though funding for both strategies is limited, TPI has learned a lot from these peer approaches to shape plans for a more robust, fully funded model. It has also become clear that investing in peer violence intervention is an equity initiative. These strategies provide an opportunity to build trust with law enforcement, though more support and resources are needed to facilitate ongoing dialogue between community and law enforcement, and to provide training for deputies in gang intervention, implicit bias, and positive youth development. 

Elevating the role of peer specialists: Planning for the Peer-to-Peer Violence Prevention Learning Academy began as an idea to better connect community intervention workers with other peer specialists, to support multigenerational gang families having access to services, and to ensure that peers were trained in trauma informed practices. As TPI staff worked with contractors to craft the project design, it became clear that this work required more than a pilot program. We learned that there are dozens of different peer specialists, that training is inconsistent, roles are unclear, career pathways are limited, and supports for vicarious trauma are largely missing.  This work will require coordination across sectors who employ peer specialists.  

Building capacity of grassroots organizations: When TPI was planning the Street Outreach contract solicitation process, we realized that there were inequities in how funds are dispersed to community organizations, specifically in violence intervention. Funding for violence intervention is limited, and a few large organizations tend to get most of the contracts, while dozens of small grassroots organizations that have the expertise and connections on the ground are underfunded. The Capacity Building Training and Technical Assistance project pilot helped organizations in TPI communities grow as nonprofits and provided important lessons about what kinds of support organizations need, and more importantly, how our systems need to be redesigned to be more equitable. These lessons learned were shared with the DPH Equitable Contracting Workgroup, which seeks to streamline contracting processes and ensure that they are accessible to high need communities and nonprofits that serve them. Additional resources are needed for intensive capacity building services tailored to violence prevention and intervention organizations.  

Building a framework for positive youth development: TPI has invested in youth engagement via the CAPs and community summits and by supporting training for county departments in positive youth development principles, and new youth development programming. New funding from Probation to conduct a Positive Youth Development Evaluation will help TPI inform systems change and bring more programming to TPI communities by leveraging partnerships.  TPI continues to elevate the need for resources and coordination to bring intentional youth development programming to TPI communities, including youth leadership opportunities, and programming tailored to hardcore gang-involved youth. 

Establishing community hubs: TPI communities, like many communities disproportionately impacted by violence and economic hardship, have few safe spaces to gather or access programs and services. Parks and libraries emerged as critical community hubs in TPI communities, as they are safe and trusted spaces, with a wealth of innovative programming. Additionally, the MLK Healing Center has become a model for providing community-driven healing programs and trauma services. 

Healing community trauma: The need to provide supports for healing community and individual trauma, as well as address the inequities resulting from historical oppression and systemic racism, are made clear through all strategies of TPI. CAPs have provided support and lifted up the voices of communities impacted by trauma. Capacity-building technical assistance has been provided to organizations serving communities impacted by trauma. TPI invests in peer intervention approaches that employ credible messengers who relive their trauma as part of their work. And while TPI has invested in healing arts programs and trauma trainings, much more work needs to be done. Funding has been secured to provide trauma- and healing-informed community crisis response, and to provide vicarious trauma- and self-care-support systems for peer specialists such as Community Intervention Workers. Service providers and first responders also need support for vicarious trauma and self-care. Finally, meaningful systems change is needed to address the root causes of violence, and to ensure that communities that have been too long impacted by violence are able to thrive and have access to the resources they need.  

Building evaluation infrastructure for complex community initiatives: Evaluating a complex and evolving initiative like TPI is challenging. TPI prioritized its evaluation budget to build data tracking protocols for Street Outreach and HVI to better understand and support expansion of these models and worked closely with intervention contractors to refine tools. TPI also invested in an innovative approach to conduct a community safety survey implemented by community intervention workers. Additional funding is needed for a comprehensive evaluation of TPI, including effectiveness of coalition building and community engagement, tracking of systems change efforts, and to repeat the community safety survey to track changes over time.  

Public-private investment: TPI has garnered partnerships to help advance a collective vision and to expand the breadth and reach of its work. This includes early investment from LA Care and California Community Foundation to provide bridge funding for Street Outreach and HVI respectively, from Kaiser and LA Care to support the community summits, and from the LA County Probation Department, which has invested in an expansion of the Capacity Building Training and Technical Assistance project countywide. TPI continues to explore additional opportunities to partner with county departments and philanthropy to advance common goals to address violence. This includes setting up flexible funding to address urgent and immediate community needs. 

Violence is not inevitable, and if we invest in individuals, families and communities, violence can be prevented. There is now a strong body of research that clearly shows that a wide range of strategies have demonstrated impacts on reducing violence. As county and community partners continue to invest in best and promising practices (home visitation, park programming, safe passages, hospital violence intervention, trauma-informed practice), as well as identify new recommendations for a racially just care first, harm reduction approach, and coordinate work across sectors, shifts in services and programs will occur that sustain the work of healthy and safe individuals and communities beyond any one entity, program, initiative or department.  But there remains a need to strengthen the community-county relationships, the infrastructure, the multidisciplinary coordination, and the funding mechanisms that support local place-based efforts including investments in community driven and survivor inclusive planning, implementation and evaluation and trauma informed approaches.  No one entity can solve violence and no one entity can sustain it, but through collaboration and pooled funding that invests in communities first, we can prevail to stop violence, heal from violence, and promote health and well-being for everyone in Los Angeles County.