ALBANY, N.Y. (WKBW) — Governor Kathy Hochul has announced the state will be awarding $23.7 million in grant funding to cut down on gun violence statewide.
The state is looking to spend the money on new gun violence prevention efforts, including job training, community activities and intervention in areas with high concentrations of gun violence.
Job Training Programs
About two-thirds of the grant funds, roughly $16 million, will go towards workforce development and job placement programs across 20 cities that are the most heavily impacted by gun violence statewide.
The hope is that those programs will help connect at-risk youth — including young adults age 18-24 who are unemployed, or out-of-school — with permanent, good-paying jobs. The state posted full details on the job programming here.
This is in addition to $12 million the state had previously awarded to the Consortium for Worker Education to help youth in New York City.
Community Activities
$5.7 million in grants will be going to help fund sports, arts, civic engagement, skill development and recreational programming in communities with high gun violence.
The goal of these programs are to provide young people with safe and enriching activities in their community after school and on the weekend. Specific programs were recommended by county and legislative leaders in the community.
Intervention Programs
Finally, New York is allocating another $2 million to gun violence intervention across the state, through hiring and training 39 new street outreach workers and violence interrupters.
It'll also aid already successful community-based gun intervention programs to increase their staff who engage and mentor at-risk youth, host community events, work to steer young people away from gun violence and respond to shootings to prevent retaliatory violence.
Subsequent grants to hire new outreach workers and interrupters will be made in the coming weeks.
