Fresno anti-violence program faces funding crisis after losing federal grant

Advance Peace Fresno laid off five employees after losing a $2 million federal grant, cutting the city’s anti-violence capacity just as Fresno leaders say they cannot afford to lose ground on shootings and homicides.

Program manager Aaron Foster said the work is personal for him because he lost two children to violence. He said the program’s mission is to stop other families from enduring the same loss by using outreach workers to intervene before arguments become shootings or retaliation.

Advance Peace Fresno works through Neighborhood Change Agents and its Peacemaker Fellowship, a model aimed at people at highest risk of shooting or being shot. The organization says independent evaluations and city data have shown reductions in shootings and homicides of 20% to 40% in cities that have adopted the model. Supporters in Fresno also have pointed to a 43% reduction in homicides as evidence that the program has helped keep violence down.

The funding picture is more fragile than the program’s defenders say it looks. A 2025 budget breakdown put Advance Peace Fresno’s total budget at about $1.2 million for 2024-25, including $375,000 from the City of Fresno and $330,000 from the State of California through gun-violence-related funding. The federal grant had been secured in 2023, but its loss this year forced the program to scale back and continue with less staff.

City Councilmember Miguel Arias said he wants to push the council to restore funding with cannabis revenue, tying the debate to the city’s Office of Cannabis Oversight and to a larger question of what public-safety tools Fresno is willing to keep paying for. The timing is tight: Mayor Jerry Dyer presented the city’s proposed FY 2026 budget on May 15, 2025, and council budget hearings ran from June 2 through June 17, 2025.

That budget fight now sits beside a broader question for Fresno County residents and city leaders alike. If Advance Peace cannot replace the federal money, Fresno loses five trained workers and part of the outreach network that has been credited with helping slow gun violence. If the city does replace the money, officials will be signaling that violence interruption remains part of Fresno’s public-safety strategy, even under fiscal strain.