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As reported in The Trace, Multnomah County, which includes the City of Portland, is one of the first locales that moved quickly and boldly to dedicate ARPA funds to violence prevention. The budget decisions were informed by a PEACE (prevention, equity & anti-oppression, accountability, collaboration, and evidence) Framework developed in 2020 to align policies, priorities, practices, and relationships across departments. The PEACE Framework was crafted by a cross-departmental work group committed to listening to community members most impacted by violence, with support from Prevention Institute. Raffaele Timarchi, policy advisor for the Multnomah County Commissioners Chair, described the use of their ARPA funds for comprehensive violence prevention strategies in three buckets:
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Community protective factors, including housing and economic security, and community capacity-building efforts
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Individual and relational protective factors, including early childhood and family supports, school-based supports, and street-outreach programs
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Safety and healing, including culturally-rooted healing practices
The county has dedicated a total of over $61 million in ARPA funds across these areas. In addition to addressing acute community needs, the County is looking into ways to use ARPA funds to strengthen policies, systems, and structures to address the root causes of multiple forms of violence, including gun violence, group violence, sexual violence, domestic violence, and human trafficking.
In Alameda County, community leaders are advocating for the use of ARPA dollars to fund urgent and innovative approaches to gun violence prevention. Having successfully gotten the county to declare gun violence a public health emergency, Black and Brown community leaders are calling on the county to invest nearly $100 million of the $324 million in ARPA relief funding to support the “Black Community Recovery Plan” created by the African American Response Circle, a group formed to address the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on people of color. Their plan calls for investing in housing, economic self-sufficiency, and spiritual and physical health in communities impacted by gun violence.
This is an unprecedented opportunity to invest in communities most impacted by the pandemic and violence -- rarely are there resources available for this level of commitment. In addition to the clarification that ARPA funds can be used toward violence prevention, the Treasury Department importantly urges “State, territorial, Tribal, and local governments to engage their constituents and communities in developing plans to use these payments, given the scale of funding and its potential to catalyze broader economic recovery and rebuilding.” We hope other locales will follow the lead of county governments like Multnomah and community leaders in places like Alameda County to make these investments a reality. If Prevention Institute can be of help in this process, please reach out to us. Prevention Institute provides consultation and coaching services for cities, counties, and states to support community safety planning, capacity building, and policy and systems change. For more information, visit our Tailored Guidance to Cities and Counties web page.
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