$2M for violence prevention included in State budget, what could this mean for Austin?

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Governor Greg Abbott signed off a more than $300 billion budget that allocates $2 million to community-based violence intervention (CVI) efforts.

These initiatives involve grassroots efforts to not only address existing violence in a community, but determine what’s causing it – and from there, the best way to break the cycle.

In March, the City of Austin announced $1,184,000 federal dollars dedicated to CVI measures were cancelled as part of nationwide federal funding cuts.

How Austin organizations could get this money

According to Austin Public Health, the department the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) operates under, the funding offered through the governor’s office “will be available through a competitive process through Project Safe Neighborhoods. Interested Community Violence Intervention programs throughout the state would have to submit an application.”

As this process is still in its early stages, the City – as well as local CVI groups – is waiting to learn more about grant criteria.

According to the website for the Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program, projects that receive funding should “create and foster safer neighborhoods through a sustained reduction in violent crime.”

Below are the types of organizations eligible to apply:

• Institutions of higher education
• Independent school districts
• Non-profit corporations
• Units of local government

The budget item reads this is meant to provide grants “for the purpose of supporting effective and evidence-based violence reduction initiatives.”

Austin Public Health said it is “excited and looking forward to learning more about the funding opportunity.”

How community-violence intervention is at work in Austin right now

ATX Peace is Austin’s primary CVI organization. It’s a combination of nonprofits Life Anew and Jail to Jobs, and the city’s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP).

“It is a very small fraction of people who are driving violent crime in our community,” said Michelle Myles, the head of the OVP, during a city meeting earlier this year.

ATX Peace operates under the OVP and involves “trusted messengers” – people with their own experiences with violence and/or incarceration – to connect with community members in either violence-prone areas.

Last year, the OVP is began working on a program meant to make sure suspects and felons – specifically related to domestic violence charges – don’t have guns.