Seattle – The JAMS Foundation’s Seventh Annual Warren Knight Award will be presented to Cure Violence, along with a $25,000 grant. The award recognizes the work Cure Violence has done over the past 15 years to help reduce and prevent violence in cities across the U.S. and around the world. The organization received the award at the ABA Dispute Resolution Conference in Seattle.
Cure Violence, founded by Gary Slutkin, M.D., an infectious disease and global health physician, has worked successfully for over fifteen years to help reduce and prevent violence using a health approach that is now replicated in more than 50 communities in 25 U.S. cities and eight countries around the world.
Recognizing chronic violence as a serious health crisis affecting the well-being of both individuals and entire communities, Cure Violence employs a well-established health model to identify and interrupt sources of violent confrontation, mediate conflicts, continue working with high-risk individuals to change behavior and build community support for norm change to help prevent further outbreaks of violence.
Highly-trained and credible outreach workers engage directly with those most at risk of violence to interrupt potentially lethal conflicts, encouraging participants to seek out more constructive solutions. The Cure Violence Health Model has consistently been proven effective at reducing violence in multiple independent studies.
Cure Violence is currently developing specialized training in its Health Model for police, law enforcement agencies and communities nationwide.
On behalf of our 350 staff who work in high-risk communities daily to interrupt violence and mediate potentially lethal conflicts, I want to thank the JAMS Foundation for its support for our work to change individual behavior and community norms. To be recognized by the JAMS Foundation, the largest private alternative dispute resolution provider in the world, for our work in conflict mediation is truly an honor.
- Gary Slutkin, M.D., Executive Director of Cure Violence.
The JAMS Foundation is proud to recognize Cure Violence for their work in helping to reduce and prevent violence in our cities. In light of the continuing violence that we see in many cities between police and the communities they serve, we enthusiastically support Cure Violence’s current efforts to develop specialized training and education for police and law enforcement agencies around the country.
- David Brandon, Managing Director of the JAMS Foundation
Hon. H. Warren Knight (Ret.) was the founder of JAMS, which he created in January 1979. Judge Knight was considered a pioneer in the ADR and legal communities and was instrumental in introducing and furthering ADR, including mediation and arbitration, within the legal community in California and throughout the United States.
About the JAMS Foundation (www.jamsfoundation.org)
The non-profit JAMS Foundation is the largest private provider of ADR-related grants in the world. The Foundation was established in 2002 by JAMS, the largest private provider of alternative dispute resolution services worldwide, and is funded by JAMS mediators, arbitrators and employee associates who contribute a percentage of their income. The JAMS Foundation has provided more than $5 million in grant funding since its inception. Founded in 1979, JAMS and its nearly 300 fulltime mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of the world’s most important cases.
About Cure Violence (www.cureviolence.org)
Cure Violence is ranked 17th in the list of the top 500 global NGOs by Global Geneva and is beginning an international movement to change the thinking and reduce violence through locally organized community led efforts. The Cure Violence method was developed using World Health Organization strategies and has won multiple awards. It has been promoted by the Institute of Medicine, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Department of Justice and has been described in the Economist as “the approach that will come to prominence.” Its work was featured in the 2011 award-winning documentary “The Interrupters” and is currently featured in NYT best-selling authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s new book "A Path Appears."