Two D.C. community organizations are getting a total of $750,000 in grants in an effort to decrease crime and violence in the District.
It’s part of the D.C. Attorney General’s Office’s Cure the Streets program. The two organizations are First Shift Justice Project and DC Jobs with Justice. The money is slated for the expansion of education and legal services for D.C. workers, and it will be the first full year of the Workplace Rights Grant Program’s operation.
“The issue of worker rights is critical. It’s important for workers to understand their rights. These grants will facilitate just that,” D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said.
“Cure the Streets,” launched in 2018, is a public safety program with a focus on reducing gun violence in targeted neighborhoods across D.C., which have historically experienced the highest rate of gun violence. Currently, the program has 10 sites.
Council member Charles Allen praised Racine’s efforts to address gun violence through the program, which he said has been shown to work as an “important tool” in the fight to reduce gun violence long term.
Racine said that his office’s program is a complement to a broader citywide effort.
In June, D.C. reported homicides that outpaced those of last year by 10%, and the District said that it was planning on adding more violence interrupters for the program the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement oversees. However, a report by the D.C. auditor found that it’s not clear if the ONSE program is working, and there’s no way to prove that the violence interrupter’s efforts are the reason incidents of violence did not occur.
“Continued investment in community-based violence reduction programs is a critical piece of a much larger effort to reduce crime and violence,” the D.C. Attorney General’s Office said in a news release.
WTOP’s Lauren Hamilton contributed to this report.
