LIVE FREE began with a conviction: faith communities can do more than respond to tragedy. They can organize people, change policy, and help build the conditions for communities to live free from violence and mass incarceration.
Since 2011, LIVE FREE has trained clergy and grassroots leaders, supported local violence-prevention campaigns, moved public resources into community-based solutions, and built a national network across more than 40 states.
That infrastructure has contributed to measurable change. In Oakland, community pressure helped launch a Ceasefire strategy associated with a 31.5 percent reduction in gun homicides. In California, organizing helped increase state Community Violence Intervention funding from $14 million to more than $200 million. Nationally, LIVE FREE helped architect the Break the Cycle of Violence Act.
Faith-rooted organizing connects values with durable action. Congregations can hold grief and hope at the same time, convene people across difference, and expose the false choice between safety and dignity. Organizing turns those strengths into a base capable of winning budgets, laws, and institutional change.
Learn more about LIVE FREE’s history, explore its current work, or join an upcoming event or action.
