Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice has terminated anti-violence grants to nearly 300 organizations. This includes a Clark County coalition, which is set to lose over $1 million.
Last year, the Department of Justice awarded the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative grant to a Clark County coalition.
A coalition, made up of nine partners, spent the past year creating the framework for joint programs to reduce gun violence in Clark County.
The coalition's nine partners are the Springfield Foundation; Springfield Police Division; Clark County Sheriff’s Office; Opportunities for Individual Change, Clark County Combined Health District; Springfield City School District; Clark County Juvenile Court; the local NAACP; and the Mental Health & Recovery Board of Clark, Greene, and Madison Counties. Opportunities for Individual Change managed the grant.
Leslie Crew is part of the coalition and said they’re focused on the community’s young and vulnerable residents.
"We were noticing that the gun-related incidents were happening more frequently and at a younger age," Crew said. "So we were looking for ways to not only reduce those episodes, but then also to figure out how we can pull different programming that currently exists in our community and impact at an earlier age."
The total grant was for $1.6 million. According to Crew, the group already spent about $400,000 hiring a program coordinator, staff and on other expenses. Then on April 22, "We received an email at 5.30 p.m. from the Department of Justice that the grant was terminated effective immediately," said Crew.
That meant the remaining portion of their grant, a little more than $1.2 million, was gone. In the email, the federal agency stated their project "no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
Crew believes the Clark County coalition will continue working to reduce gun violence.
"Right now, there's no funding available locally to fall back on. The participating agencies have all voiced that they're dealing with budget constraints as well," Crew. said "But we've continued to work to make our community better no matter what it faces, so I think everyone's still committed. It's just a matter of what resources we're able to work with."
The Clark County coalition has filed an appeal with the DOJ and hopes to be reimbursed for some of its advance expenses.
