The U.S. Department of Justice has recently decided to discontinue funding for certain groups that focus on enhancing public safety and decreasing violence.
One of the impacted organizations is Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, part of Metropolitan Family Services. According to Executive Director Vaughn Bryant, they have lost $3.7 million in grants.
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The organization says the impact will be significant especially in Chicago neighborhoods like Englewood and Woodlawn.
Another group that’s impacted is Project Outreach and Prevention, or POP, on Youth Violence.
This organization operates in four communities in Northwest Indiana: Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, and Merrillville. Dr. Michael McGee, the founder, notes that his organization lost roughly $1 million due to these cuts.
They learned of the grant terminations just days before the start of National Youth Violence Prevention Week.
As for the reason for the grants being terminated, Bryant says they were told that the grant no longer supports the goals of the administration.
Metropolitan Peace Initiatives and POP on Youth Violence are part of an effort to appeal the decision to terminate the grants.
Metropolitan Peace Initiatives works with 15 local organizations in Chicago.
“Yeah, so, for us, it just means that organizations will probably have to lay off workers. And the timing of this is terrible, because we know that the vast majority of our gun violence happens in the summertime, so doing this now is inconvenient,” Bryant said.
For POP on Youth Violence, McGee says, “For us, we’re small. We only have about three employees but our outreach is great.”
McGee says they work with young men with gun charges who are on probation.
“We’ve been doing some amazing work and now all that stops. We’ve been decreasing the amount of youth that are carrying guns. And doing that great, outstanding work and now all that stops,” Bryant said. “If we were to take the three neighborhoods where the DOJ grant is actually operating, West Englewood is down about about 33%, Englewood is down about 42%. So, total number of homicides. And Woodlawn is down 75% over the last five years… We are not saying that we are solely responsible for that. But having community violence intervention being part of the public safety ecosystem has been a value add.”
Both organizations are part of an effort to appeal the decision to terminate the grants.
As for what’s ahead, McGee says his organization is trying to find innovative ways of doing things that doesn’t require a lot of money.
“We’re going to fundraise, we’re going to keep doing the work that we can,” he said.
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