By Liz Ness
Gongwer News Service
Community violence partners in Detroit say if a budget passes with cuts to their programs, then their services would be stretched and violence that has been on a downward trend will be at risk of spiking back up.
In a press conference on Monday with a coalition of community violence intervention programs and End Gun Violence Michigan, the partners reflected on the aftermath of the shooting on Sunday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc as a reason to defend funding for violence prevention.
President of End Gun Violence Bonnie Perry said instead of the Legislature debating to cut from gun violence prevention and mental health programs, in watching the grief of Sunday’s shooting, then lawmakers “should be talking about how much more (they) can invest to save lives.”
Norman Clement, executive director and founder of the Detroit Change Initiative, blamed House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, for the budget drama in Lansing, criticizing the focus on a roads plan while cutting violence prevention services to the community.
Negus Vu, president and founder of The People’s Action, said the work he does has resulted in a 49% reduction in gun crimes in the area they serve, “disrupting violence” by assessing the root causes of violence like housing or mental health, providing multiple social services.
He said their organization does this with just $700,000 per year from community grants, paying 13 staff members, and they usually need millions of dollars for all the assistance needed. He said if they lost the funding they had now, then “people will die, and the cycle of violence will continue again.”
“They need to invest in a life, and they need to invest in our future, so they don’t sentence these young people in our neighborhoods to death because we want more road money. It’s not worth it,” Vu said.
Ciera Renee, director of programs at FORCE Detroit, said the data exists to prove community violence intervention is working, with 2024 touting the lowest number of murders since 1960, seeing a 40% reduction across the city, and looking at another 20% this year compared to last year.
Renee also cited that continuous gun violence also costs a lot in medical bills and police officer hours, with a non-fatal shooting costing $1.2 million and $1.8 million for a fatal shooting, saying the math makes sense when you take the human aspect out of it.
Renee said the $5 million proposed for the Office of Violence Prevention and $20 million in a school-based intervention programs in the Senate budget needs to be actualized in the budget “because there are lives that are depending on it.”
Ryan Bates, founder of Breakaway Strategic Consulting, said without this funding, these groups would have to start laying off people quickly immediately in the short term.
Renee said that when her group lost federal funding just a few months ago, she had to reassign people to other departments to keep their employment in general. She said if their group loses more funding, they won’t have “wiggle room to just move people around in the organization.”
She said because they don’t want to “throw away” any cases, her departments are being stretched in capacity and caseloads.
Gongwer News Service
Community violence partners in Detroit say if a budget passes with cuts to their programs, then their services would be stretched and violence that has been on a downward trend will be at risk of spiking back up.
In a press conference on Monday with a coalition of community violence intervention programs and End Gun Violence Michigan, the partners reflected on the aftermath of the shooting on Sunday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc as a reason to defend funding for violence prevention.
President of End Gun Violence Bonnie Perry said instead of the Legislature debating to cut from gun violence prevention and mental health programs, in watching the grief of Sunday’s shooting, then lawmakers “should be talking about how much more (they) can invest to save lives.”
Norman Clement, executive director and founder of the Detroit Change Initiative, blamed House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, for the budget drama in Lansing, criticizing the focus on a roads plan while cutting violence prevention services to the community.
Negus Vu, president and founder of The People’s Action, said the work he does has resulted in a 49% reduction in gun crimes in the area they serve, “disrupting violence” by assessing the root causes of violence like housing or mental health, providing multiple social services.
He said their organization does this with just $700,000 per year from community grants, paying 13 staff members, and they usually need millions of dollars for all the assistance needed. He said if they lost the funding they had now, then “people will die, and the cycle of violence will continue again.”
“They need to invest in a life, and they need to invest in our future, so they don’t sentence these young people in our neighborhoods to death because we want more road money. It’s not worth it,” Vu said.
Ciera Renee, director of programs at FORCE Detroit, said the data exists to prove community violence intervention is working, with 2024 touting the lowest number of murders since 1960, seeing a 40% reduction across the city, and looking at another 20% this year compared to last year.
Renee also cited that continuous gun violence also costs a lot in medical bills and police officer hours, with a non-fatal shooting costing $1.2 million and $1.8 million for a fatal shooting, saying the math makes sense when you take the human aspect out of it.
Renee said the $5 million proposed for the Office of Violence Prevention and $20 million in a school-based intervention programs in the Senate budget needs to be actualized in the budget “because there are lives that are depending on it.”
Ryan Bates, founder of Breakaway Strategic Consulting, said without this funding, these groups would have to start laying off people quickly immediately in the short term.
Renee said that when her group lost federal funding just a few months ago, she had to reassign people to other departments to keep their employment in general. She said if their group loses more funding, they won’t have “wiggle room to just move people around in the organization.”
She said because they don’t want to “throw away” any cases, her departments are being stretched in capacity and caseloads.
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