Bay State allotted funds to reduce youth violence

The city of Boston received about $10 million in state and federal grants last week to help fund programs that prevent youth violence in high-risk neighborhoods.

The grants, about $2 million each, will fund six Boston organizations over the course of the next five years, according to an official City of Boston press release.

“Children’s exposure to violence is a public health crisis in Boston and preventing it requires partnerships across all organizations and institutions in our community,” said Mayor Thomas Menino at a press conference last week. “These grants will help us continue the important work we have already started to prevent violence and reduce its impact, especially in our hardest hit neighborhoods.”

About $8 million in total will go toward programs that work with local children and youth, focusing on limiting childhood exposure to violence, creating alternatives for teenagers instead of violence and guidance for those affected by violence.

Preventing violence, especially youth violence, stems from community members coming together and strengthening the infrastructure of their own neighborhoods, said Tania Mireles, the director of the Violence Intervention and Prevention initiative.

VIP is one of the six programs receiving money and will be allotted $1.1 million over the next five years.

“We need to get the residents engaged on various levels in terms of getting involved in their neighborhoods,” Mireles said. “When people feel more ownership over the problem, when they’re part of the solution – [those are the] programs that are sustainable.”

The VIP initiative, which Mireles said is “excited” to be receiving the grant, works in communities within Roxbury, Mattapan and North Dorchester. VIP breaks these larger communities into smaller neighborhoods, she said, and then works with residents to plan and execute a project that will benefit the community.

In the mean time, the VIP initiative provides forums for helping people to reach solutions without violence, she said.

The idea, Mireles said, is more than just “stopping shootings on the street,” but seeks to encourage residents to vocalize against violence.

Mireles said that it is critical to reach out to children at a young age to counter youth violence.

“If they [kids] see a lot of violence around them, they become vulnerable to negative messages,” Mireles said. “The programs help them build resilience and establish their own confidence.”

Mireles added that in one recent community meeting, a group of third- and fourth-graders watched “The Karate Kid” and then “engaged in some really awesome conversation about it.”

Simple meetings like this, she said, are “super important,” because “kids learn from us.”

The five other local organizations receiving grants in the next several years also work with kids of all ages, according to a press release. At least three of these organizations work with individuals who are at risk of gang violence.

The Safe and Successful Youth Initiative, receiving $2.26 million, and the Boston Reentry Initiative, receiving $750,000, both focus on helping former criminals to enter the workforce and to leave violence behind them.

Part of the promise of these grants, Menino said at a press conference, is that they promote citywide partnerships between different local initiatives and organizations.

Police Commissioner Edward Davis said, at the press conference, that he agreed with Menino. Many of the institutions receiving grant money work closely with the police, according to the press release.

“When it comes to making the city of Boston the safest city it can be, we fully understand and embrace the complexities of the challenge before us and the notion that we can achieve more by working together,” Davis said, according to the press release. “As such, the news of today’s grants is certainly well received and greatly valued for the promise that comes with it.