About Advance Peace
Our Mission
What We Do
We equip governments and nonprofit organizations with proven community violence intervention practices that center healing, prevention, and a public health approach to safety. Through a national community of practice, we support partners in implementing data-driven solutions that lead to safer, healthier communities.
History of Advance Peace
Founded in 2016, Advance Peace emerged from a growing demand among cities and communities eager to replicate the success of the Peacemaker Fellowship. Originally created in Richmond, CA in 2010, the Peacemaker Fellowship demonstrated a groundbreaking, community-driven approach to interrupting cycles of gun violence among those at highest risk. With the invaluable support of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, The California Endowment, and the California Wellness Foundation, we began our journey by launching the Fellowship in Sacramento and Stockton California.
By 2022, the Peacemaker Fellowship had expanded to an additional 12 cities, and by the end of 2024, we had enrolled over 1,081 fellows in 15 cities, making significant strides in community resilience and safety.
As we look to 2026 and beyond, our mission evolves to ensure that Community Violence Intervention (CVI) becomes an integral and permanent component of public safety infrastructure in cities affected by gun violence. We are committed to serving as a field catalyst, providing robust support to cities interested in bringing the Peacemaker Fellowship to their communities through our initiative, Peacemaker Fellowship on Demand.
Transforming Communities: Advance Peace Confronts Gun Violence
Advance Peace is made up of people who know this work because we have lived it, studied it, and practiced it. We are credible messengers, educators, and experienced practitioners who bring both lived experience and professional expertise to one of the most pressing public safety challenges of our time: retaliatory urban gun violence.
We do not excuse this violence. We acknowledge it as wrong, destructive, and deeply harmful to the communities we serve. And we insist on this truth: it doesn’t have to happen. The persistence of gun violence in American cities is not inevitable—it reflects outdated systems and rigid approaches that too often enable the problem instead of solving it.
Stopping Violence, Transforming Lives
We serve those at the very center of gun violence because that is where the cycle continues, and because they are the ones most often left behind by existing responses. Until society and its structures remove the drivers of this violence from our streets, Advance Peace is committed to doing what we know works: consistent, intentional, relationship-driven engagement that stops shootings before they happen and opens new pathways for those most likely to be harmed or cause harm.
And we will not stop until our most impacted communities can live free from its grip.
Connect With Us
Join the movement to transform communities and reimagine public safety. Follow Advance Peace on social media to stay connected. Share, comment, and retweet to help spread the peace.