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More than 110,000 Americans are injured or killed by guns every year, in community violence, domestic violence, mass shootings, suicide, and accidents. A growing body of research concludes that easy access to firearms contributes to gun violence in all its forms, and the Nick Cannon Foundation is committed to supporting efforts and policy solutions to limit availability of firearms to those at risk of violence.  





The Nick Cannon Foundation will pursue meaningful and effective systems and strategies that will foster:

 

  • Reducing gun violence through policy reform, research, education, legal and grass roots strategies;

  • Supporting 21st Century policing to build greater police-community trust and legitimacy; and 

  • Reducing incarceration of young people.



Strategic Approach

  • Committed to supporting efforts and policy solutions to limit availability of firearms to those at risk of violence. More than 110,000 Americans are injured or killed by guns every year, in community violence, domestic violence, mass shootings, suicide, and accidents. A growing body of research concludes that easy access to firearms contributes to gun violence in all its forms.

  • Focus on urban areas. The impact of gun violence is experienced most acutely by young people of color and their families and communities. At the same time, lack of trust between police and community members, coupled with overreliance on incarceration, further weaken communities and compromise public safety.

  • With the goal of reducing gun violence while improving the fairness of the justice system, the Nick Cannon Foundation will develop and support efforts to meet these objectives.

 


Key Strategies


Pursue meaningful and effective systems and strategies that will foster:

 

  • Reducing gun violence through policy reform, research, education, legal and grass roots strategies;

  • Supporting 21st Century policing to build greater police-community trust and legitimacy; and

  • Reducing incarceration of young people.


Nick Cannon has dropped in a few times at Chicago’s Cook County jail to hang out with inmates and provide words of encouragement. Nick Cannon Foundation will continue this work in concert with our efforts to bring about prison and criminal justice reform. A recent report found that the Cook County Jail failed to adequately protect inmates from harm or risk of harm from other inmates or staff; failed to provide adequate suicide prevention; failed to provide adequate sanitary environmental conditions; failed to provide adequate fire safety precautions; and failed to provide adequate medical and mental health care.



"Many people have so many different opinions about our justice system," Nick told a crowd of students inside the jail. "Opinions never change history. It’s examples that change history. Everybody in here is an example."


Nick Cannon Foundation will continue its work with the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Inmates at the D.C. jail and Howard University students learned alongside each other this spring, and Nick Cannon recognizes them every opportunity he gets. More than 150 participants graduated from the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which covers the criminal justice system and aims to "facilitate dialogue across difference."