To our dear friends and supporters. Since the day Tom was killed, our family has searched for answers. How could this happen? What can we do to keep other families from suffering through a similar trauma? How can we keep all children safe - in every neighborhood? But as you’ve seen from the events in the past few weeks, including the killing of 6 year old Nyiah Courtney one day and the shooting of three people outside the baseball game at Nationals Park the next, the gun violence in DC has only gotten worse since Tom was killed. So what can be done? When Tom was killed, we didn't have any answers. But in our journey, we’ve found lots of experts and meaningful programs that have shown that cities across the United States can in fact significantly reduce gun violence. For many reasons - DC just hasn’t been one of those cities. But today, as highlighted in this opinion piece in the Washington Post, we want to announce our plans to honor Tom Marmet, and every victim of gun violence, by turning words into action - and launching Peace For DC.

In other cities, foundations and philanthropy have driven significant reductions in gun violence by making deep investments in community organizations that work directly with the individuals driving the violence. Simply put, if we want to get guns out of their hands, we need to replace the weapons with something else. A diploma. A key to an apartment. Job training. Mental health to treat a life of trauma. All of this can be done. It's incredibly hard work, but gun violence reduction strategies have been implemented successfully by working with the most at-risk individuals - for over two decades. And it is critical that this work be centered in community, and run by community-based organizations in each of the neighborhoods with painfully high homicide rates. And philanthropic investment can make this happen....and has done so before. The Partnership For Safe and Peaceful Communities has raised almost $100 million by unifying Chicago foundations and funders in aligned giving towards evidence-based gun violence reduction strategies. So today, out of the work that we’ve been doing with Peace For Tom, and through our advocacy with Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety in America, we are launching the Peace For DC Fund at the Greater Washington Community Foundation.

Peace For DC is the way that we amplify and accelerate the violence reduction efforts already underway in community and within the DC government. Over the last few years, we’ve built connections with amazing people doing work in the DC neighborhoods where the residents are crying out for help, and the organizations that can deliver that help are under-resourced and in need of support. With our amazing allies at Moms Demand Action and other organizations, we’ve successfully fought for changes in the DC government - the hiring of a Director of Gun Violence Prevention and the launch and the DC Council funding of a Strategic Plan for gun violence reduction are two examples. We have strong relationships across the Council, and with leadership at the Metropolitan Police Department, Attorney General’s Office, violence interruption teams, and on the Mayor’s staff. But the critical work in DC needs to go wider and deeper. And we all have a role: government can’t do this alone. We will never make significant reductions in gun violence without everyone in every Ward and every station in life working together on solutions. We know what works, and the key to making progress - now and in the short term - is a laser-focus on the individuals driving our city's gun violence.

Our goal is to raise $20 million this year, and $50 million by the end of 2022. That’s how we’ll save the most lives and change the city. There’s much more information on our website - www.peacefordc.com - but we’re working on reaching the dedicated foundations and funders who are already investing in the same communities that suffer from the worst of DC’s gun violence plague. Many of these funders are making heroic investments in addressing education, housing, and hunger needs. But we also need to invest directly into changing the lives of the individuals driving our gun violence - or we will never make real inroads in all those other areas. If it isn't safe to walk down the street, you will never improve conditions in neighborhoods that are suffering. So if you have ideas of people who could help us build to this goal, please let us know. In coordination with the city's violence reduction efforts, Peace For DC's investments can help the District reduce shootings and homicides by 60% over the next five years - which will literally save hundreds of lives. This is possible because we need to reach and invest in a very small number of people - approximately 1/10th of 1% of the city’s population. And the communities that are suffering know who they are and well resourced outreach teams and case workers can reach them and help turn their lives around. From the beginning of this journey through grief and pain, we knew we wanted to honor not just Tom, but every victim of gun violence, and we knew that the real effort should be focused on keeping people alive - stopping killings before they happen - and now we know the way. We know that if we all work together, we can build lasting Peace For DC. Thank you for helping us get to this point. We encourage you to visit our new website, share this with a friend, sign up for our email updates, and send us your ideas. We all have a role to play in this fight - and we're grateful for your love, dedication, and support as we work to make every street safe for every person. If we can do that, we will truly achieve what Tom would want - not just Peace For Tom - but peace for every neighborhood, peace for every child, every person, Peace For DC. With love and appreciation, Tom Marmet's family