City of Racine to establish Office of Violence Prevention after securing 3-year, $1.5 million grant

RACINE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The City of Racine is celebrating a $1.5 million grant that will allow them to establish a new Office of Violence Prevention.

Racine is one of 10 communities selected by the Medical College of Wisconsin to get money from the Wisconsin Community Safety Fund.

Racine Mayor Cory Mason said his community is like so many others across the state with a recent uptick in violence.

Violence prevention efforts in Racine have been ongoing for several years, but he said this grant is critical because it'll allow the community to ramp up those efforts for the next three years.

Mason said, "This is an investment in prevention and stopping crime before it occurs."

Mason praised law enforcement Thursday but said they can't do everything. He said the city is tackling violence in three ways: first by solving crimes and preventing crimes, but also by "Trying to address the root causes that might lead to the trauma that people experience."

That's where he hopes a new Office of Violence Prevention will help.

Mason said, "This is really the prevention piece that's as important. So if you want to see a change in how much gun violence occurs in the community, what can we do on the front end to prevent those things from happening?"

Details are still being ironed out, but Mason expects to hire on a director who will work with national and local stakeholders to develop a gun violence intervention plan based on community input and trends.

He said, "The way you do that is one human being at a time. What are we doing to create the spaces so there are people to provide supports for other people who might be dealing with trauma."

Earlier this week, health experts said the COVID-19 pandemic showed violence is a public health problem and should be treated as such.

Reggie Moore is the Director of Violence Prevention Policy and Engagement at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He said, "For communities to be safe, they also have to thrive. They have to have what they need in terms of children, families and neighborhoods having the resources, access to opportunity and justice to be successful."

For now, Mason wants the city to keep working with partners like the school district, county, businesses and non-profits like Safe and Sound, which goes door-to-door in one neighborhood for now. "With this grant," Mason said, "we'll hopefully be able to expand those efforts to other parts of the city to help reduce crime."

Once the grant runs out in three years, the city will have to find a new source of funding. But Mason said even three years of this project was an opportunity that was too good to pass up, and the city will look for more funding down the road. "If we have an opportunity for the next three years to hit it hard, we will do that. And while we're doing that we'll figure out is there an opportunity to maintain this for the long run."