CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland wants to allocate $1 million from a new neighborhood safety fund before the end of the year to help organizations in their efforts to reduce violent crime. The amount comes from $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars the city recently used to create a donor-advised fund at the Cleveland Foundation.
In a year plagued by violent crime across the city, the fund’s sole purpose is to help prevent and reduce violence. According to numbers from the Cleveland Police Department, there have been around 130 homicides so far this year, a 12% jump compared to this time last year. Of the 130 homicides, 115 of those involved a firearm.
“We recognize that this is not just a law enforcement issue,” Mayor Justin Bibb said during opening remarks at a gathering at the Frederick Douglass Rec Center Wednesday.
City leaders and community advocates came together to discuss the fund and meet members of a new committee that will help decide where that money goes and what it will be used for.
“One of the things you heard loud and clear today was the importance of making sure we have enough resources for prevention and intervention measures,” said Sonya Pryor-Jones, chief of the city’s youth and family success.
Pryor-Jones acknowledged the many individuals and organizations working to help youth stay out of trouble and reduce crime in the city. The $10 million neighborhood safety fund represents a new approach to help outside organizations have the financial support they need.
“There’s no silver bullet. Mentoring is not the only answer. Great housing is not the only answer. To be honest, trauma informed care is not the only answer,” said Dale Anglin, vice president of for proactive grant making at the Cleveland Foundation. “There’s lots of answers. The question is how do we coordinate that?”
Anglin will help manage the fund and work with a 9-member committee made up of community and city appointees to award organizations with money to support their efforts to reduce violence.
“We’ve never held a fund like this that the city invested in—first of all, it’s all city money to start, at least—and it’s all targeted to neighborhood safety,” she said.
Mayor Bibb said the fund was a first of its kind at the local level in the nation.
“So, we’re investing in every part of how we reduce violent crime in Cleveland on a short, medium and long-term basis,” he said.
He said using a small amount of the money each year would not limit the immediate impact the fund might have on combating crime.
“Absolutely not. We want to make sure these funds are dedicated to the parts of our city that we know are hotspots for violent crime. So, we’re going to be data driven. We’re going to incentivize organizations to work together,” he said.
Mayor Bibb acknowledged there would be a learning curve, especially in this first round of funding, to know what efforts work and what does not work.
Councilmembers also supported the fund, including three who will serve on the advisory committee. During Wednesday’s press conference, Councilman Richard Starr lamented the violence across the city and expressed his hope that the fund would help put an end to it.
Councilman Joe Jones, who hosted the event in his ward and has been a proponent of improving policing in the city, was also hopeful the fund would make a difference.
“The fund is not one of those types of situations where it’s going to be a quick fix. It’s going to take time to deal with the problems that we have, but setting up the fund is significant because long after we’re gone that fund is still going to be here,” he said.
Anglin said the goal is to allow the fund to grow in investments each year while also asking for private donations. She said they planned to give $1 million to organizations each year for the first couple of years and then reduce that amount to 5-7% annually.
The city says 501c3 organizations “working on a mission to intervene and prevent community violence” can apply for the grant. Organizations without that status may also be eligible to apply with a fiscal agent.
Applications for this first round of funding will be accepted beginning October 9 at 8 a.m. You can find applications on The Cleveland Foundation’s website. https://www.clevelandfoundation.org/grants/apply-for-a-grant/
