The city of Charlotte is funding community organizations to address violent crime.

Seventeen community organizations will receive $50,000 grants through the SAFE Charlotte program. The grants, provided by the city in part through the federal Community Development Block Grant, are in response to City Council adopting the SAFE Charlotte plan last October. Part of the plan included re-imaging policing when it comes to making communities safer. Providing funding to community organizations doing the work was at the top of the list, recommending local government “Provide $1 million from the city’s current budget to help Charlotte based non-profits address violence in the community.”

The remaining recommendations are: “Work with an external partner to develop a comprehensive recommendation to convert low-risk sworn duties to non-uniform units. Work with an external partner to provide an independent analysis to include areas such as police-civilian contact and police calls and responses. Expand Community Policing Crisis Response Team and develop a non-sworn officer responder model for mental health and homeless calls. Engage a university or independent organization to evaluate selected youth programs on an annual basis. Enhance recruitment efforts and develop a program to provide additional residency incentives to officers living in priority areas, including a down payment incentive.”

United Way of the Central Carolinas was selected to oversee the grant application process. The funding will provide capacity-building support to the recipients, who will then implement plans to evaluate and report their progress. United Way will work with two local groups – UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and Bringing You Excellence, LLC – to aid in the capacity-building and reporting evaluation requirements over the yearlong grant timeframe.

Two workshops will be conducted by the Urban Institute to address program evaluation and data collection, helping organizations understand what data is relevant and how to collect it, as well as receiving a data collection template and guidebook to aid with tracking their progress. Grant recipients must check-in quarterly and submit a final report once the yearlong grant period ends, providing evidence of their work and its impact on the community.

Bringing You Excellence will address the capacity-building side through monthly workshops, which are designed to help grantees expand their knowledge of philanthropy, the business of nonprofit management and their role as grassroots entities within the nonprofit sphere. B.Y.E. will also offer individualized support to recipients.

Grants recipients include organizations offering youth services for those ages 13-19, services for children under the age of 13 and their adult caregivers, as well as services for children and adult victims of domestic violence, teen dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault. Eleven of the 17 organizations fall under the first category, four under the second and two under the last. While they are not SAFE Charlotte grant recipients, Support Her Boots and Locked Out Love, Inc. will receive training stipends supporting their development.

SAFE Charlotte grant recipients for youth services for 13- to 19-year-olds include Beatties Ford Road Vocational Trade and Counseling Center, Beta Nu Lambda Foundation, Center 360, Firm Foundations Youth and Family, Mecklenburg Council of Elders, Planet Improve Incorporated, Project BOLT, Promise Youth Development, Save our Children Movement, Inc., Stilletto Boss University and Thornhill Rites of Passage Foundation.

Organizations who were provided grants for providing services for children under age 13 and their adult caregivers are Alluviam, Inc., Jumping Dreams DD, Prodigal Son Foundation and Teach a Man to Fish Foundation, Inc. Two organizations that offer services for children and adult victims of domestic violence, teen dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault are Family Mankind and Sanctuary in the City.

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