What's at stake?
Violent crime fell to a 50-year low last year, just three years removed from record highs. Now, one of the programs credited with reducing gang and street violence is running out of money. A new plan could keep the lights on in the short term, but a sustainable future remains in limbo.
An anti-violence program that researchers say played a major role in Fresno’s historic drop in gun violence and murder could get a second life this week at City Hall.
The future of Advance Peace Fresno has been in doubt since last year when the White House gutted the program’s $2 million federal grant at the height of the Trump Administration’s Musk-DOGE slash-and-burn era.
If approved Thursday, the program, which is operated under the umbrella of the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, would get a cash injection eventually totaling around $625,000.
In an interview on Monday, Program Manager Aaron Foster confirmed the money could keep the lights on until the end of October, which would give the city and the nonprofit a longer runway to find a permanent funding source.
Foster said it was too soon to know exactly how the money would be spent, and most of those questions, he said, depend on how much the nonprofit actually receives.
“We won’t know for sure until (Thursday) so we’re in limbo now,” Foster told Fresnoland. “In a perfect world, the city would be able to adopt (the program) as a city resource based on the proof that it works.”
A joint study last year by UC Berkeley and UC Merced credited the program with helping reduce all city gun violence — both homicides and assaults — by as much as 46% two years after the program got off the ground.
The report, quietly released last fall, concludes that “Advance Peace may be an effective strategy to reduce gun violence.”
The program has received plenty of local political support over the years, including, Foster noted, the city’s police chiefs, including now-Mayor Jerry Dyer.
In a statement to Fresnoland on Monday, the mayor doubled down on his support for the program.
“The Fresno model of Advance Peace continues to be an effective strategy in helping to reduce gang related shootings and murders in our city,” Dyer said. “I will continue to prioritize funding for them in my budget.”
Councilmember Miguel Arias, who was one of the program’s earliest supporters, told Fresnoland that the city should keep Advance Peace Fresno running.
“It would be detrimental to walk away from a program that’s been so beneficial to public safety,” Arias said in a telephone interview Monday with Fresnoland.
Arias echoed the conclusions drawn in last year’s UC Berkeley report and noted that homicides in Fresno fell to a historic 50-year low, with 22 murders reported in the city last year.
That’s down from consecutive record-breaking years in 2020 and 2021 that reported 74 homicides each year.
Thursday’s vote will take place amid a recent uptick in violence, especially violence involving teens. Arias referenced the violent-crime spike when speaking with Fresnoland on Monday.
“Very directly you can say that Advance Peace has been credited as being one of the main drivers behind the largest decline in violence and violent crime at least in recent history,” Arias said.
Foster said while there’s no way to know whether any of the recent violence could have specifically been prevented. The fact that Advance Peace now has fewer counselors and fellows available makes it harder for them to do the challenging work of reaching people who Foster described as “the most likely to try to solve issues with violence.”
The abrupt loss of the $2 million grant was a gut punch for the program, but the work continued with many mentors and counselors volunteering to stay on without pay. But even with those volunteer commitments, there are still fewer fellows and mentors available in the 24-hour-per day, seven-days-a-week program.
“You can already see the results,” Foster said, referring to the recent uptick in violence. “Instead of being 100% proactive like we were, we’re now more reactive because we don’t have the numbers right now.”
The Fresno City Council is expected to take up the issue during Thursday’s regularly scheduled council meeting at City Hall in downtown Fresno.
