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TCWF's Violence Prevention Initiative has been significant in impacting the landscape of violence prevention in California and the nation. Beyond the funding provided through the Initiative, VPI was a catalyst for connecting an eclectic mix of violence prevention experts from throughout the state of California.

With the advantage of hindsight, we now know much more than we did 10 years ago. Despite all of the challenges and lessons learned, the Violence Prevention Initiative has been a great grantmaking experiment. It was the first major grantmaking program in the nation that addressed violence as a public health issue, and significant accomplishments have been directly and indirectly attributable to the VPI grantees. During the course of the Initiative, rates of violence were reduced in many communities throughout California, and the public health language of prevention with respect to violence against youth has become more recognized and accepted. In the early 1990s, when California faced a multiple-billion-dollar budget deficit, there was little hope for increasing resources to address the issue of violence against youth. Yet, the funding and political climate have been impacted over the past decade. The state budget for violence prevention funding has increased exponentially from $8 million in FY 1992-93 to $370 million in FY 2002-03; legislation regulating firearms are more numerous; thousands of young people have directly benefited; and hundreds of lives have been saved from programs funded by the VPI. But the work is not complete. Ten years later, California is again facing a massive budget deficit, and some communities are facing escalating rates of violence. This gives credence to the importance and necessity of TCWF’s continued support of both grassroots-level violence prevention efforts, as well as organizations working to educate policymakers and opinion leaders.