Preventing Violence, Promoting Safety at Community-Scale: Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition
The winter holidays are often a time of joy and celebration. Yet for some families, the holidays can also be stressful – due to tight finances, challenging childhood behaviors, lack of childcare, mental health struggles, addiction, grief, and more. When families don’t have the resources or support to cope with stress and challenging behaviors, it can have devastating effects on children and caregivers, both in the moment and for years to come.
It’s not enough to simply help families cope with challenges – we must also change the community conditions causing stress, burnout, and instability for families.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what United Way of Lane County does.
With donations from community members like you, United Way is able bolster a wide network of programs across Lane County providing parenting education, family support, safety, and violence prevention for local families.
Program Spotlight: Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition
Julie Weismann, Executive Director of Hope & Safety Alliance, and Jeff Todahl, Director of Research of the Center for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect, speaking at United Way’s 2023 Community Breakfast about the new Violence Prevention Coalition.
One of these initiatives is the Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition (VPC), a new collaboration between Kids FIRST, Sexual Assault Support Services, Siuslaw Outreach Services, 90by30 Initiative, and Hope & Safety Alliance.
The VPC is working to implement a county-wide primary violence prevention system. As it stands today, no such system exists, and current services largely address after-the-trauma needs. This coalition aims to prioritize preventing violence before it happens on a community-wide level.
United Way help get this coalition off the ground, by granting them a $75,000 Community Change Coalition grant in 2022-23 when they first launched.
Now, United Way is investing another $70,000 annually through Transformation Grants over the next three years to support their efforts.
“This project is community-based and incorporates the voices of those with lived experience to find sustainable solutions to preventing violence. The Violence Prevention Coalition was established last year with the help of the United Way and in the year to come through United Way support, our work will focus on collaboration with professionals, survivors, and other community-based efforts that affect the health and safety of all.”
Investing in a Wide Network of programs
In addition to the Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition, United Way funds and supports a wide network of other programs providing parenting education, family support, safety, and violence prevention. Click on the “Funded Partners Working to Keep Families Safe” below to see a list of these organizations we’re funding July 2023 through June 2025.
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• 90by30 Initiative
• Center for Family Development
• Family Relief Nursery
• Friends Of The Children - Lane County
• Lane County Family Resource Centers
• Lift Every Voice
• Options Counseling
• Oregon Community Programs
• Parenting Now
• Pearl Buck Center
• Pleasant Hill School District
• Relief Nursery
• Riverview Center for Growth
• St. Vincent de Paul’s First Place Kids
• Willamette Family Treatment Services
• Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition
Your donation to United Way’s Live United Fund is what enable us to invest in systems-level change, including programs like the Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition. When you give to United Way, your individual action is part of a powerful, collective movement - of people, programs, and coalitions - changing outcomes for kids and families.
Please join us in helping keep families safe this winter by making a gift today.
“I want to acknowledge the innovation and commitment of United Way to invest in collective impact... This is going to have huge impacts on our communities for years to come.”