LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) - A grant from the city of Louisville will give the Office of Youth Development nearly $1 million to allocate to organization aimed at helping system-involved youth.
The grant targets youth and young adults ages 16-24 and seeks to help organizations develop and implement strategies to help those in the juvenile justice system and foster care.
City activists like Christopher 2X and his Game Changers organization are anti-gun violence advocates and have broken down statistics that show youth and young adults are at the epicenter of some of Louisville's violent crime.
Christopher 2x is an anti-violence advocate and the executive director of Game Changers in Louisville.
LMPD's records indicate that nearly 40 percent of the homicide victims this year are individuals under the age of 24.
Nearly 40 percent of the suspects LMPD has identified in homicides are also under the age of 24.
You can analyze those numbers by clicking here.
"I've never seen nothing like this," 2X said. "It's very heartbreaking and sad for everyone involved."
The grant aims to help the younger population and tackle root issues by giving those troubled age groups more opportunities than the systems many of them are caught in.
"We're seeing numbers increase in terms of the number of young people who are involved in crime and criminal activities, and with that we also have to recognize what is happening in the environment, and we have to also recognize that people are making the choices that they have," said Director of Youth Development Dr. Aishia Brown.
Dr. Brown said it's clear that the systems in place are failing youth, and the grant money aims to reverse that.
"What choices is that that young people have right now?," she said is a question this grant hopes to answer. "How do we change what those choices are?"
Those questions, leaders and activists say, are key in targeting what needs to change in the systems like juvenile detention programs and foster care.
They add it's a step in the direction of diverting from the path of violence young people are taking.
"These organizations who work and try to engage these kids and do some kind of intervention, they deserve to get that support as much as they can to try to at least curb the tick down of some of those numbers," 2X said.
Organizations eligible for grant money have to operate programs that address at least one of the following structures:
- Centralization
- Client Centered Case Management
- Outreach
- Peer Support
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