Community Violence Intervention Clinic
The foundation of the Community Violence Intervention Clinic (CVIC) is the recognition that violence is a public health crisis. The Clinic will introduce students to the concept of Community Based Public Safety as a complementary strategy to traditional policing. Following the 2024 CVI Action Plan, the Clinic will partner with Southern California violence intervention groups to support peace building practitioners, reduce gun violence, and advocate for victims and survivors of violent crime. CVIC will have its own MSW team, led by Lecturer Wendy Blanco. The CVIC is launching in fall 2025.
Students in CVIC will have the opportunity to engage in record clearing motion work such as expungements and vacatur motions, as well other projects — including policy and legislative work — aimed toward our three objectives: victim and survivor support, Community Based Organization (CBO) capacity building, and interventionist direct services. Students will match with a specific organization with a primary objective of violence intervention to support the organization’s internal structure while simultaneously learning the field and building relationships with community peace builders. Specific projects may include advocating for victim compensation with CalVCB, representing a practitioner in criminal proceedings such as misdemeanor defense or quashing a subpoena, and collaborating with national agencies such as the Alliance for Safety and Justice in policy campaigns.
CVIC works on expungements and vacatur motions. CVIC does not accept cases for criminal defense work.
To see an example of the kind of community-based strategies that inspire CVIC’s work, watch the Watts Shared Safety Initiative video.