The roots of CNE’s youth violence reduction initiative were in a program in Philadelphia, PA known as the House of Umoja, which stopped gang violence throughout Philadelphia in the early 1980's. Robert L. Woodson, Sr. learned the principles of youth violence reduction and gang peace negotiations from Sister Falakah Fattah and her husband David, founders of the House of Umoja. He applied these principles to finding other grassroots organizations around the country that had the capacity to do the same kind of work. Learning from all of them, he documented and developed the principles that became the basis of the Violence-Free Zone initiative.

In January, 1997, when a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed in violence between rival youth factions in a crime-ridden Washington, DC public housing development, CNE coached and supported a local grassroots group named the Alliance of Concerned Men as they brought the leaders of the two warring factions to CNE's offices to negotiate a truce. Using strategies learned from the Philadelphia experience, Bob Woodson and the Alliance helped craft a peace agreement among warring factions in Washington, D.C.'s Benning Terrace public housing development, where fighting had led to more than 50 youth deaths in previous years.

Once the young people agreed to sign a peace pact, D.C. Housing Receiver David Gilmore offered to provide jobs in the Housing Authority’s maintenance program, and a program of employment and life skills was created as an alternative to the drug and crime-filled lifestyle they had agreed to leave.

Many lessons were learned in the Benning Terrace experience. Among the most important was the realization of the profound influence held by those who had formerly led the negative activities, and who had publicly chosen to promote peace. The leadership qualities they had once employed in a negative way were now directed to cleaning up the neighborhood and setting the younger children on a positive path. The youngsters who once looked up to them because of their street reputations now looked at them with respect. They were willing to take direction from them and they trusted them because the older youths had come from the same background they did. They were living examples that no matter how dysfunctional their home, their neighborhood, or even their own lifestyle, change was possible.

At the end of almost 13 years, there were no crew-related homicides in the area.

Woodson’s previous research had made it clear that this was not just a unique incident—an anecdote in the history of youth violence. There were other grassroots organizations around the country that had the same level of influence in the neighborhoods—influence that had been won because of their service to the community. They had the trust and respect of young people and the ability to summon them to responsibility. CNE set about helping these informal grassroots organizations by raising financial support and providing training and technical assistance in areas of organizational and financial management. Woodson named the initiative the CNE Violence-Free Zone, and sites were created where strong youth-serving organizations implement the VFZ program.