By Brian Malte and Ally Barron | October 5, 2020
In order to make an impact and be successful, we rely heavily on the philanthropic community to support our efforts. Hope and Heal Fund is grateful for the support of our funding partners, including California Wellness Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield, The California Endowment, Heising-Simons, Akonadi Foundation, Cedars Sinai, The David Bohnett Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, Rosenberg Foundation and many other supporters.
More than 115,000 Americans will be shot and 40,000 will die from gun violence this year alone — just like the year before and the year before that one. Gun violence in our country is considered one of the greatest public health crises of our lifetime, disproportionately impacting and traumatizing communities and people of color.
Far too often we see the disproportionate rates at which marginalized people in our country are the targets of hate, violence and injustice. COVID-19 and the recent peaceful protests are bringing to light the inequities that exist in our broken systems — but it shouldn’t take a pandemic and a nine-minute video of a man being murdered by police for systemic change. The data on these inequities has existed for decades.
As the only state-based donor collaborative investing in gun violence prevention in California, Hope and Heal Fund takes a public health, community-based approach through a racial equity framework to end gun violence. It harnesses the collective power of philanthropy, government, advocates, experts, researchers, community partners and individuals to invest in proven solutions and emerging strategies to intervene, interrupt and prevent trauma, injuries and deaths as a result of gun violence in the homes and communities in California.
