Our Resource & Pillars
Know Your Rights Program
Summer of 2024
Our Know Your Rights program will provide gun violence survivors, violence prevention workers, and advocates with a wide range of trainings on their legal rights, informed by their most pressing needs. Community Justice launched a national field survey in April of 2024 in partnership with researchers of color to identify the legal support needs of gun violence survivors, violence prevention workers, and advocates. Trainings will focus on these data-driven priorities and will be led by experts, including system-impacted lawyers, existing legal networks and legal aid programs, and those working on community violence intervention in local communities. CVLP will offer these trainings throughout the year in multiple formats, including in-person, hybrid, and virtual.
Legal Support Network & Law Clinic
2024/Early 2025
Community Violence Prevention Lawyers Network
Established by Community Justice, the Community Violence Prevention Lawyers Network helps to build knowledge about community violence issues (including community violence intervention), engage new allies, and empower lawyers to be gun violence prevention advocates across public safety ecosystems and assist communities that are most impacted by this epidemic. Legal professionals in our network will have the opportunity to participate in thought-provoking discussions, CLE programs, trainings, and advocacy campaigns. The Lawyers Network will also partner with individual legal leaders and bar associations to publish resources on a range of community gun violence prevention issues. The heart of our democracy lies in the promise of peace, security, and freedom for everyone. In this critical moment, as we come together to fight very real threats to our democracy, we are doubling down on efforts to protect the people that comprise our democracy from the ever-present threat of gun violence. Our Lawyer’s Network is another step in our fight to ensure that the communities most impacted by gun violence receive the care, support, and investments needed to interrupt violence and address its root causes.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Community Violence Prevention Lawyers Network or wish to offer your services to support the network in a pro-bono capacity, please contact amber@cjactionfund.org.
The Community Violence Prevention Law Clinic will be established through partnerships with law firms and law schools around the country to provide pro bono representation and support for frontline violence prevention workers, gun violence survivors, and people with low incomes who have been impacted by gun violence.The goal of the law clinic when in partnership with law schools will be to help support a new generation of lawyers and legal support staff that are educated on ways to utilize the criminal legal system to support gun violence prevention.
Impact Litigation
Late 2024/Early 2025
Partner organization will complement its advocacy in statehouses and Congress with a strategic impact litigation program utilizing the courts to bring accountability to the gun industry on behalf of those most impacted by gun violence We will work in partnership with leading national law firms to develop novel legal theories and bring to light the injustices that cause so much preventable harm.
