The City, in partnership with The Scattergood Foundation, is providing capacity building and technical support to community-based organizations that received an Office of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for Criminal Justice & Public Safety (CJPS) Community Expansion Grant (CEG). 

What is the Community Expansion Grant Program?  

The Anti-Violence Community Expansion Grant Program is a grant program that launched in 2021 and that directly funded and supported organizations that are focused on reducing violence through trauma-informed healing and restorative practices and safe havens and mentorship. Grant awards were between $100,000 – $1,000,000 and went to 31 organizations. 

Grants are provided to organizations that have annual operating budgets below $15 million and a proven track record working in neighborhoods vulnerable to gun violence. By targeting funding towards proven community-based organizations, the City is putting this money in the hands of organizations with a proven track record of delivering quality, culturally relevant services while making sure those applying already have the infrastructure in place to be successful. The focus of the Community Expansion Grants is to provide direct trauma-informed healing and restorative practices or safe havens and mentorship programs.

How is the City supporting grantees? 

Community-based organizations face administrative and organizational challenges when providing vital services and programs to their communities. By building technical assistance and capacity building into the CEG program, the City supports grantees throughout the program and provides a better chance of success for their programs. To provide this vital component of the grant program, the City of Philadelphia partnered with The Scattergood Foundation. 

The Scattergood Foundation supports CEG grantees in the following ways: 

  • Quarterly Workshops: Workshops are in-person and are six hours each. Each workshop has a unique theme and grantees are encouraged to network and collaborate with each other. Grantees are given access to panelists and subject matter experts, many of whom have lived experience regarding violence and violent crime. Themes for the workshops include:
    • Fundamentals of Evaluation
    • Theory of Change and Logic Models
    • Data Analysis
    • Communicating Findings 
  • Small Group Meetings: Each grantee meets three times during their contract period in small groups with other grantees and a consultant. These meetings typically last for two hours and focus on practicing skills and learnings from quarterly meetings in peer-to-peer settings. 
  • Individual Consultations: Each grantee is provided with access to five individual 90-minute consultations. These individual consultations are available to the grantees’ program director, along with any relevant staff. 

In total, the Scattergood Foundation provides CEG grantees with ten hours a month of consultation. 

What is next for CEG? 

One priority of CEG is providing support for our grantees. The second priority is guaranteeing that the services provided by our grantees benefit our communities and build safer communities for all Philadelphians. 

To achieve this, the City is receiving support from Cities United, part of the team providing evaluation of the Community Expansion Grant. Cities United and the team will provide culturally relevant evaluation of our community grantees, to better understand the effectiveness of their programs, the growth as organizations, and the impacts of their work on communities most at risk of gun violence. 

“To get a fuller picture of who the grantees are, what they do and who they serve, it is important for us to be in community with them,” said Anthony Smith, Executive Director of Cities United. “Visiting each of the grantees allows us to see the work in action, and helps us provide a better assessment of the investments and the needs.”  The organizations and people I engaged with in my first rounds of site visits assured me that the City of Philadelphia is making the right investments.”

How can I learn about future funding opportunities for violence prevention work? 

The City of Philadelphia regularly releases funding for community organizations engaged in violence prevention work in their communities. To find out about these opportunities, visit the Office of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for Criminal Justice & Public Safety website or follow us on social media @PhillyAlive215.

Learn more about future funding opportunities for violence prevention work.
Link to CJPS website.