The Business of Our Pain: Reclaiming Violence Prevention from Performative Profit

Violence prevention should not be an industry.
It should be a commitment—a covenant with community.

And yet, across the country, we’re watching a dangerous pattern emerge: organizations capitalizing on trauma. Grant dollars are flowing, headlines are written, and shiny frameworks are packaged—but the people closest to the pain are still underpaid, unsupported, and unheard.

The work is being done in their name—but not always with their leadership.

When Violence Prevention Becomes a Business Model

I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. The organizations that show up for press conferences and partnerships, but not for people.

• They apply for violence prevention dollars with no ties to the streets.

• They staff programs with under-resourced frontline workers and give them no pathway to healing or advancement.

• They tokenize community members, extracting their lived experience for panel points but never pouring back into their growth.

This is not prevention. It’s performative proximity.
And the result? Burnout, betrayal, and broken trust.

What Real Prevention Requires

Real violence prevention is not about proximity to power.
It’s about power-building from within.

We need community-led, healing-informed, and structurally rooted strategies—starting with:

1. CPTED + Community Voice
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) shouldn’t be reduced to lighting upgrades and fences.
Used right, it becomes a tool to co-create safety with the people who live there.

Want to stop violence? Start by designing environments that feel like belonging. Invite residents into planning, not just as consultants, but as co-architects.

2. Cognitive Behavioral Tools, Not Just Talking Points

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) isn’t just for therapists.
Its principles—thought reframing, emotional regulation, trigger identification—can be woven into community programs in deeply practical ways.

When trauma is met with tools, healing becomes possible.

At JMCG, we call this “Healing Infrastructure”:

a trauma-informed, culturally grounded ecosystem of support where programming, wellness, and workforce overlap seamlessly.

3. GVI, but With Radical Honesty

Group Violence Intervention (GVI) has shown real promise—but only when it’s built on honest dialogue and deep trust.

True GVI creates space for:

• Real talk between system leaders and community

• Accountability without surveillance

• Care without conditions

When paired with agency activation—meaning pathways to jobs, wellness, and leadership—you don’t just reduce violence. You build community-led eradication.

Uplift the Frontline, or Get Out of the Way

To the organizations applying for violence prevention grants without investing in your staff:
Stop. You’re replicating the harm you claim to fight.

To the funders:
Ask who’s at the table—and who’s still being served food with no seat.

To the people doing the work with love, scars, and sacred purpose:
You are the blueprint. You are not underqualified. You’re under-resourced.

We don’t need another campaign.
We need commitment.
We need programming that heals and pays.
We need frontline workers trained in trauma, community members paid for their wisdom, and neighborhoods co-authoring their own safety.

Because the business of violence prevention should never be about business.
It should be about belonging.