LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The U.S. Department of Justice is giving the city of Louisville $2 million in federal funding to curb gun violence in the city's Newburg neighborhood.
The DOJ will fund a three-year pilot project called the "Newburg Gun Violence Reduction Project" to cut down on homicides and non-fatal shootings.
It will add an additional "violence interrupter site" in Newburg. The sites use community members in Louisville's highest-risk neighborhoods to prevent potentially violent situations.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced $2 million for the city of Louisville on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, to fund a three-year pilot project to expand the city's "violence interrupters" program to the Newburg neighborhood. (WDRB photo)
The interrupters intervene in gang-related conflicts before they intensify.
"I am thrilled that we are getting federal resources right here into local hands," Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Kentucky's 3rd District, said. "Local hands who know how to stop gun violence in our community, to give kids a chance, to give people a chance."
The city's Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods will use the funding to "develop a system for collaboration between residents, community leaders, nonprofit organizations and city and state agencies to strengthen violence intervention efforts. The goal is to identify solutions at a micro-level that will address specific neighborhood dynamics and needs," the city said in a news release Thursday.
"This pilot will give us valuable insight into the needs of a specific geographical area," OSHN Director Paul Callanan said in a news release. "This is grassroots. It will help us discover how well all stakeholders work collectively as we use Newburg's social dynamic and neighborhood characteristics."
OSHN will also hire an additional outreach case coordinator and one program manager for the Newburg area site.
"Louisvillians deserve to live without the fear that a gun would cut their life — or the life of a loved one — short. This funding is essential to helping our incredible OSHN team build on their efforts to find real solutions to ending gun violence," Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a news release. "Through this neighborhood-specific pilot program we will identify solutions that bring change and establish a platform to build from for a citywide effort."
Violence interrupter sites are already established in the city's Portland, Shawnee, Russell, Smoketown and California neighborhoods.
To learn more about the programs offered by OSHN, click here.
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