Violence causes physical pain, mental health problems, community turmoil and other life difficulties on both personal and environmental levels. The chapter was designed to motivate individuals to become involved in violence prevention efforts in their own communities. It is divided into five sections: (1) a brief description of community-based violence prevention efforts through a definition of the approach, a review of the advantages, identification of the community risk factors for violence and a discussion of early intervention by communities; (2) characteristics of effective community-based violence prevention programs; (3) using identified characteristics to evaluate promising violence prevention programs; (4) an overview of the National Mental Health Association’s campaign for the prevention of violence; and (5) suggestions for future research and program development, including strong program evaluations, using existing knowledge in practice and developing and initiating public policies that lead to violence prevention. References