Mayor Walsh Announces $1.48 Million Federal Grant to Reduce Violence
Published on October 05, 2022
Award will support the Mayor’s Office to Reduce Gun Violence “Syracuse Community-Based Violence Intervention Program”
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh announced the U.S. Department of Justice awarded the City of Syracuse a $1.48 million grant to reduce community-based violence under the Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI). Syracuse is one of fifty-three communities and organizations in the nation to receive an award.
The Syracuse Community-Based Violence Intervention Program, coordinated by the Mayor’s Office to Reduce Gun Violence, will implement activities in five core areas: community mobilization, social intervention, opportunity provision, organizational change, and suppression. Strategies identified in the city’s grant proposal include street-level intervention by neighborhood credible messengers, assessment and case management creation, educational support, job training and workforce support, and crime reduction initiatives.
“This grant will help expand the infrastructure needed to enhance community safety and strengthen our neighborhoods,” said Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh. “We want Syracuse to be a national model for how a city can successfully turn back community-based violence. The CVIPI grants to Syracuse and communities across the U.S. marks an historic investment in community-based violence intervention programs from the Department of Justice, and I thank our federal partners for their support of our City’s efforts to reduce violence in Syracuse.”
“I’m heartened by the investment that is being put into our community and look forward to working with our community partners to implement the strategies. Working together, we can assist and uplift our youth so that they have the resources and network available to reduce their risk of gang affiliation and crime,” said Director of the Mayor’s Office to Reduce Gun Violence Lateef Johnson-Kinsey. “We will use this funding to create and coordinate an ecosystem of Community-Based Violence Intervention services in Syracuse.”
The Mayor’s Office to Reduce Gun Violence will work with the City-County Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence and other key stakeholders, including the Syracuse Police Department, the Syracuse City School District, the Street Addiction Institute, Mothers Against Gun Violence, the Goodlife Foundation and other community organizations and agencies to plan and coordinate youth gang and gun violence intervention efforts.
CVIPI grants will support holistic, cross-agency collaborations, seed new efforts and fund expansion plans in both community-based organizations and local government agencies, provide funding and assistance through intermediaries to build the capacity of smaller organizations, offer technical aid to jurisdictions that do not receive federal funding and invest in research and evaluation to better understand what works to reduce violence. The grants are jointly administered by OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Office for Victims of Crime. OJP’s National Institute of Justice will also support evaluations of projects funded under this initiative, contributing to the growing body of evidence regarding the effectiveness of violence intervention strategies.
Syracuse’s $1.4 million award is part of $100 million awarded to communities across the U.S. to help reduce gun crime and other serious violence. See the USDOJ’s Award announcement here.