April 14, 2011 – As of today, the City of Omaha has 32 grant funded contracts with community-based organizations for more than $1,000,000 to provide educational programs, employment training, leadership development, behavioral skill development, and quality afterschool time to at-risk youth in our community, as a means to prevent participation in gang and violent crime.
The City of Omaha, Douglas County Attorney’s Office, the Urban League of Nebraska, and nine other community based organizations received grant awards from the State of Nebraska Office of Violence Prevention this week to support local violence prevention and intervention programs. The three separate grant awards total $228,800 that is being applied toward community-based violence prevention and intervention programs in the Omaha community.
The City of Omaha will work with Urban League of Nebraska, the Douglas County Attorney’s Office, and nine other nonprofits to support programs to alleviate crime and violent behavior, from afterschool activities to programs that teach youth offenders to develop empathy for victims and give the offenders a chance to make amends.
While the City, Urban League of Nebraska and the Douglas County Attorney’s Office applied for these grants last year, the money comes at a time when a run of local shootings have killed two and injured 10.
“Our community has been shaken by the recent shootings in our city,” Mayor Suttle said. “But we are working day and night to bring an end to violence in Omaha. The grant our city and partner organizations have received will help connect those citizens most at-risk of conflict with the help they need to improve their lives and reject the violence that devastates our community.”
The State of Nebraska Office of Violence Prevention grant supports increased collaboration between the City of Omaha and nonprofit groups working to end violence in the Omaha metro. The money will be used to enhance local prevention programs, which teach at-risk youth the skills they need to avoid gangs and violence, and intervention programs, which intervene in the lives of gang members, their peers and families to connect them with employment and educational opportunities to stop further violence.
To improve the communitywide response to violence, the City of Omaha has partnered with the following organizations to collaborate to implement prevention and intervention programs in the Omaha area: Building Bright Futures, Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership (ENCAP), Center for Holistic Development, Hope Center for Kids, Omaha Housing Authority, Women’s Center for Advancement (formerly YWCA), Impact One Community Connection (IOCC), Heartland Family Service, and Family First.
