In fall 2023, Cleveland officials launched what they say is the nation’s first-of-its kind violence prevention endowment fund.
The city has since doled out $2 million to 43 grassroots organizations.
Violent crime in Cleveland is down by 13% last summer as compared to the previous three summers following a national trend. Mayor Justin Bibb attributes the city's crime reduction to a multi-prong plan to address high crime rates in recent summers, including the Neighborhood Safety Fund.
City officials say the goal of the fund is to diversify Cleveland's approach to crime prevention, starting with those on the ground who know their neighborhoods the best. But there's still work to be done, said Sonya Pryor-Jones, the city's chief of youth and family success.
"We know that that is not solved by one or two rounds of a grant, but that's solved when a community as a whole is focused together on reducing violence," Pryor-Jones said, "and when a community as a whole is also providing preventative programming and a lot of opportunity for support, overall social determinants of health."
Spread the Love Foundation CEO Ossie Neal said the city’s $50,000 grant helped her organization launch its music production education program at Cuyahoga County’s juvenile detention facility. Three classes graduated in 2024 since they received the money.
"The program itself has proved to be impactful, so impactful that the county has extended other opportunities for Spread the Love," Neal said. "So now we have so much opportunity coming towards us and so many organizations that have expressed interest in our program."
The endowment’s $10 million in seed money came from the city’s half-billion dollar pot of federal stimulus funds designated by the American Rescue Plan Act.
The city anticipates opening applications for the next round of funding in the "coming months," according to a city spokesperson. The city is working with the Cleveland Foundation, which facilitates the fund, to finalize details.
Though the endowment is intended to grow, the city is always seeking additional income sources to increase the fund.
The full list of recipients from the 2023 and 2024 funding rounds:
- A Vision of Change
- Agape Renaissance Center
- Balance Point Studios
- Beat the Streets
- Building Hope in the City
- Elements of Internal Movement Eternal Pull Inc.
- Embody Youth Academy
- Fathers Against Violence
- Ghetto Therapy
- God’s Vision Foundation
- Greater Cleveland Interfaith Alliance
- Icons
- Impact Youth Basketball
- Jarvis Gibson Foundation
- Jalen's HOPE
- M-Pac Cleveland
- Mt. Sinai Ministries
- New Era
- New Sardis Primitive Baptist Church
- Project Lift Behavioral Health Services
- Reading Ramm
- Refugee Response
- Sankofa Circle
- Shiloh Baptist Church
- Shooting Without Bullets
- Special Deeds
- Spread the Love Foundation
- Together We Rise
- Brenda Glass Multipurpose Trauma Center: Trauma Recovery on the Beat
- Burten, Bell, Carr Development, Inc.: Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) Resident Mediation Program
- Civilians Against Violence: Community Policing Neighborhood Safety Program
- Cleveland Metropolitan School District: Safe Passages
- Cleveland YPAR: Youth Participatory Action Research (Black Lives Matter Cleveland as fiscal agent)
- MetroHealth Foundation, Inc.: Hospital Responders Program for Violence Prevention
- Nerve DJ Institute: "Harmony in Cleveland: Beats, Rhymes, and Unity"
- Passages Connecting Fathers and Sons Inc.: Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Employment Program for Moderate- to High-Risk Probationers
- Peel Dem Layers Back: Cope Dealer Program
- Prolific Achievers Academy: The POD Youth Summer Employment (YSE) Program
- Renounce Denounce Gang Intervention Program Corporation: Case Management for Youth & Young Adults Who Experience Gang & Gun Violence in the City of Cleveland
- Safety Unit - Partnership between Ward Wide Education (WWE), Children at Play Edutainment (CAPE), and Man to Man (United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc. as fiscal agent)
- Teaching Young Women in Society Truth: Saving Gang Involved At Risk Females Through Arts Education Events
- Writers in Residence: Community-based Mentoring for Justice-involved Youth
