It’s time for California to create a Master Plan for Violence Prevention.
California is home to the largest, most robust, and innovative ground-level ecosystem of violence prevention organizations in the country. From San Diego to Cresent City, hundreds of local organizations provide non-punitive services that reduce and prevent violence in their communities, and millions of tax dollars go back to communities to support community-led solutions on violence prevention. Despite this progress, significant obstacles prevent the state from fully leveraging those efforts.
The leaders of California violence prevention programming struggle with overlapping areas of responsibility, funding gaps, opaque processes for community engagement, and a state government culture that’s hesitant to take on new projects for fear of encroaching on another agency’s turf. There is no department, Secretary, or other position or entity that coordinates across the government bureaucracy and drives a shared vision. Instead, at least 18 separate state entities handle various aspects of violence prevention, with little communication, coordination, or shared leadership between them. This is where a Master Plan can make a tremendous difference.
Governments have many types of interagency planning documents, such as blueprints, action plans, and scoping plans. A Master Plan is often more comprehensive and longer lasting. For example, the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education is still hailed as one of the most influential documents produced by the state, leading directly to the world’s foremost system of colleges and universities. There have also been Master Plans for Early Learning at Care (2020), Aging (2021), Kids’ Mental Health (2021), and Career Education (2024). The Newsom Administration has created four master plans – and it is time for a fifth.
This call for action comes on the heels of several years of cross-agency convening and strategizing. State of Equity and the Health in All Polices Task Force have explored the needs and feasibility behind coordinating state government agencies and community-based organizations for community-led violence prevention through the Safe & Equitable Communities Roundtable. The Roundtable is a space for state workers, community leaders, advocates, and academic experts to come together under a shared vision of community safety and discuss the steps needed to get there.
You can read more about the concept of a State Master Plan for Violence Prevention and other recommendations for a safer California in our latest report here.
For more information about our approach, visit our Safe Communities webpage and read our other reports:
- Reimagining Community Safety (2024)
- Beyond Violence Prevention (2021)
State of Equity is a program of the Public Health Institute