On December 1, 2021, Governor Tom Wolf announced $15.7 million in grant funding to support local strategies to stop gun and group violence across Pennsylvania. Grants were awarded to two Southwest Philadelphia organizations through the Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Grant Program administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD).
“Gun violence is a scourge that cuts right to the heart of our communities. We must do more to prevent violence in our commonwealth and stop the trauma of violence from blighting our future,” said Gov. Wolf. “These grants will provide communities and local organizations with necessary resources to disrupt violence, promote healing and make our communities safer. This funding is an important next step in tackling the gun violence epidemic and reducing violence in our communities.”
“Every day we lose Pennsylvanians to gun violence, traumatizing our families and our communities,” said House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Phila/Delaware. “These violence prevention grants are an important tool for our communities to support and expand safety initiatives, to protect families and neighborhoods, and to begin to reverse the epidemic of gun violence and its negative outcomes.”
AFRICOM, the Coalition of African & Caribbean Immigrants will receive $50,000 to expand a youth/children project that was implemented in 2019-2020 focused on engaging African and Caribbean Immigrant Communities against gun violence through soccer, youth leadership development and grassroots capacity building. The project focuses on building the capacities of the Lone Star Youth Soccer Academy to provide soccer and leadership skills to over 100 children. The project, which is growing by the number of participants creates safe spaces, friendship, comradery among children and families.
Neighborhood United Against Drugs (NUAD) will receive $50,000 dollars to implement a violence prevention risk reduction intervention designed to help changes the behaviors of young men at risk of committing violent act against other persons. Each year, NUAD provides four separate eight-week group level interventions to a group of 15 men ages 18 to 45. By the end of each year, 60 men would have been exposed to the training.
