Cleveland Asks Community for Advice and Help in Addressing Gangs
Call goes out for anti-gang proposals
Input sought on spending $2.5 million federal grant
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Mike Tobin
Plain Dealer Reporter
U.S. Attorney Greg White has $1.5 million to spend in select Cleveland neighborhoods to keep people from joining gangs and he is looking for ideas on how to use it.
"This is a chance for nonprofits and other groups to come together and address the gang issue," White said. "This is Cleveland's best chance in a long time to have a meaningful impact on the future."
Federal officials chose Cleveland and five other U.S. cities for the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, which comes with a $2.5 million federal grant for each city.
Police will get $1 million to spend on increased enforcement targeting gangs. Another $1 million will be spent on trying to keep children who live in the Hough and St. Clair/Superior neighborhoods from joining gangs. The remaining $500,000 will go toward trying to prevent people returning from prison to those neighborhoods from joining gangs.
A task force set up to make recommendations on how the money will be spent wants guidance from nonprofits, church groups and other community organizations. The money will be doled out in increments of no more than $100,000 a year for two years. The deadline for proposals is July 12.
"We're inviting any organization that has something to offer in gang prevention," White said.
The proposals should address issues such as the need for mentoring at-risk youths, preventing truancy and fighting the culture that promotes gangs.
Cleveland has more than 90 loosely organized gangs, officials said. In 2005, two boys -- ages 11 and 16 -- died in gang-related killings outside the Lonnie Burten Recreation Center. The Goonies gang terrorized southeast Cleveland neighborhoods for months last summer, culminating in the death of an elderly woman.
Councilman Kevin Conwell, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said the task force is wise to ask for help from organizations in the neighborhoods where the money will be spent.
"You have to have relationships with the other stakeholders in the community," Conwell said. "If you have that, it can work."
The task force, which White leads, must also assess what types of programs already exist in the targeted neighborhoods in order to avoid repetition. Then, the task force will review the proposals and make recommendations to the Justice Department, which has final authority on doling out the money.
Proposals must include detailed plans about what organizers hope to accomplish and how the money will be spent. Special consideration will be given to projects that generate other contributions and will last after the federal grant expires in two years, White said.
Input sought on spending $2.5 million federal grant
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Mike Tobin
Plain Dealer Reporter
U.S. Attorney Greg White has $1.5 million to spend in select Cleveland neighborhoods to keep people from joining gangs and he is looking for ideas on how to use it.
"This is a chance for nonprofits and other groups to come together and address the gang issue," White said. "This is Cleveland's best chance in a long time to have a meaningful impact on the future."
Federal officials chose Cleveland and five other U.S. cities for the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, which comes with a $2.5 million federal grant for each city.Police will get $1 million to spend on increased enforcement targeting gangs. Another $1 million will be spent on trying to keep children who live in the Hough and St. Clair/Superior neighborhoods from joining gangs. The remaining $500,000 will go toward trying to prevent people returning from prison to those neighborhoods from joining gangs.
A task force set up to make recommendations on how the money will be spent wants guidance from nonprofits, church groups and other community organizations. The money will be doled out in increments of no more than $100,000 a year for two years. The deadline for proposals is July 12.
"We're inviting any organization that has something to offer in gang prevention," White said.
The proposals should address issues such as the need for mentoring at-risk youths, preventing truancy and fighting the culture that promotes gangs.
Cleveland has more than 90 loosely organized gangs, officials said. In 2005, two boys -- ages 11 and 16 -- died in gang-related killings outside the Lonnie Burten Recreation Center. The Goonies gang terrorized southeast Cleveland neighborhoods for months last summer, culminating in the death of an elderly woman.
Councilman Kevin Conwell, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said the task force is wise to ask for help from organizations in the neighborhoods where the money will be spent.
"You have to have relationships with the other stakeholders in the community," Conwell said. "If you have that, it can work."
The task force, which White leads, must also assess what types of programs already exist in the targeted neighborhoods in order to avoid repetition. Then, the task force will review the proposals and make recommendations to the Justice Department, which has final authority on doling out the money.
Proposals must include detailed plans about what organizers hope to accomplish and how the money will be spent. Special consideration will be given to projects that generate other contributions and will last after the federal grant expires in two years, White said.
posted by Braye Cloud at 7:46 AM
4 Comments:
i live in solon ohio and visit downtown cleveland often. In Public Square there are thugs all over the place. The city should do something about that. My frined was jumped just waling out of the Key Tower. Public Square is a disgrace to Cleveland. Just clean it up. It's not that hard. Please do something about this!
do you call them thugs because they are black kids cause theres really no thugging to be done downtown come on now thats just hidden racism those kids just don't have anywhere to go if the people who got these bis grants to keep em in line did the right stuff with them like extracuricular activities they wouldn't be there but i bet out there in solon there a whole bunch of stuff for those kids to do !
yea its true man...
idk how it is ova der in solon
and idk how it is ova der in ohio
but over here in jersey
blacks and us hispanics anlways get put down and made to be thugs
just because alot of our younger community stays out on the streets.
but its not like the rich people from the country or somthing is paying to keep us out the streets either
Hey Rogel and Latrice,
Stop having illegitimate children so your kids have male role models. That might get rid of some of the thugs on the streets. I live in Cleveland and what Ricky said is not closet racism, it's fact. People get robbed all the time on Euclid and Ontario if they are out of the view of the security guards in the buildings. Hell, the mall downtown has a nobody under 18 rule w/o parents and limits the amount of teenagers that are allowed in because of robberies and jacka$$ behavior.
And Rogel A., we do pay for people to stay off the streets, it's called welfare and my tax dollars pay for it. That doesn't work, and I believe welfare should be wiped out, it breeds this kind of behavior. You have too many idiots with too much time on their hands, too little brain matter upstairs and every excuse in the book.
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