Macon Violence Prevention announces third round of grants

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct grant money total of $860,500.

Macon-Bibb County plans to invest more than $800,000 in community grants into supervised youth activities, mental health, and parenting support and education.

The county announced 25 grant recipients through its Macon Violence Prevention program to about 60 community members and local leaders at Glorious Hope Baptist Church on Wednesday morning.

“While we knew the work would take many, many years to make a difference, we came together because y’all made great strides in just one year,” Mayor Lester Miller said. “This started as a 10 year plan but we are amazed within a short couple of years the difference we made.”

MVP was founded in 2021 as a new holistic approach to combating violent crimes. The program has distributed roughly $2.5 million over the past three years.

The county touted a 43% homicide rate reduction overall and a 67% decrease in teen homicide victims between 2022 and 2023. Those numbers come on the heels of 2022 when there was an all-time high of 70 homicides county-wide.

Jeremy Grissom, who coordinates and oversees MVP, said of the six goals laid out by the program, supervised youth activities is the most important since it provides care to kids during the summer or after school, when they could be engaging in more “risky behaviors.”

“Some of their parents just can’t provide for them as they should, so we just want to make sure we assist and give them all that support and mentorship and availability,” he said.

Grissom said the continued funding shows a capacity to fund their own problems, and moving forward might allow them to seek funding elsewhere.

The Community Foundation of Central Georgia determined which programs to fund, Grissom said, and money was given out based on participation numbers and demonstrated need.

Grants were directed toward previous recipients and new ones, 19 of which focus on activities for kids. 

Among those groups receiving grants for another year was Men About Change, a nonprofit providing care and teaching for kids outside of school along with counseling and activities like dance and music.

Erwin Clowers, a retired teacher who works at MAC, said the grant money will allow them to increase the number of kids they can care for. Right now, they have 75 students set to join their program in the fall.

He said as a former educator, his connections, along with those of other MAC workers, with schools helps him reach out and intervene with students who may not have anything to do or who might be acting out.

Other programs, like Real Impact Center Inc., an organization encouraging girls to take on careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math), will use the grant money to retain its attendees and continue to serve its students across multiple years.

“We want them to continue to flourish in Macon-Bibb,” executive director Geneva West said at the announcement. “This grant is from Macon Violence Prevention, it will ensure our girls have a fighting chance of coming out of their neighborhood, into the community, and at large to help with higher education.”